UCSB    LIBRARY 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM 


AN    INDEPENDENT    CONTRIBUTION    TOWARDS  ITS   SOLUTION. 


By  an  ANGLO-AMERICAN. 


WITH    AN    INTRODUCTORY    LETTER   BY   THE 

HONORABLE  THURLOW  WEED. 


NEW  YORK: 
THE  ATHENEUM  PUBLISHING  HOUSE, 

100  Nassau  Street. 

BRENTANO'S,  39  Union  Square.       CHICAGO :    S.  C.  GRIGGS  &  Co. 
LONDON :  HODDER,  STOUGHTON  &  Co. 
1878. 


INTRODUCTORY      LETTER 

From  the  Honorable  THURLOW   WEED. 

"The  question  which  occupies  your  time  and  thoughts,  and  which  you 
have  treated  so  ably  and  fully  is  one  of  vital  importance — one  which  has 
caused,  and  is  causing  me  anxiety  and  apprehension.  Unhappily,  its  im- 
portance seems  not  to  have  attracted,  after  the  immediate  danger  was  over, 
the  attention  of  the  governing  classes,  too  many  of  whom,  I  fear,  fail  to 
discover  that  there  are  two  sides  to  the  question.  You  have,  I  am  happy 
to  see,  discerned  and  discussed  it  from  both  points  of  view.  In  the 
views  expressed  in  the  Appeal,  I  heartily  concur.  Both  sides  of  the  issue 
are  fairly,  forcibly,  and  fearlessly  considered. 

The  working  classes,  or  rather  the  unemployed,  have  been  very 
patient  and  forbearing ;  but  they  cannot  forbear  or  endure  much  longer. 
Nothing  but  returning  prosperity  can  avert  evils. 

My  sympathies  are  thoroughly  with  the  toiling  millions.  Govern- 
ments, State  and  National,  can  do  much  to  relieve  the  industries  of  the 
country,  if  they  possess  the  wisdom  and  honesty  to  legislate  paternally. 
Your  Appeal  cannot  fail  to  exert  a  salutary  influence ;  for  it  is  equally 
just  to  Capital  and  Labor  ;  and  as  such  it  should  be  well  circulated  and 
read  among  all  classes  of  the  community." 

THURLOW  WEED. 


PREFACE. 

The  following  treatise  was  written  immediately  after  the  terrible 
crisis  in  July,  and  assumed  the  form  of  a  letter  to  a  most  eminent  public 
man.  It  has  been  thrown  into  its  present  shape  as  the  one  best  suited 
for  general  circulation ;  and  as  now  issued  it  is  intended  to  provoke 
inquiry,  and  to  stimulate  effort. 

Every  day  the  evidence  accumulates  that  the  Labor  Question  is  be- 
coming the  grand  problem  of  the  country  and  of  the  age.  Whether  or  not 
we  will  admit  the  fact,  we  are  standing  face  to  face  with  a  giant  evil,  with 
a  prodigious  difficulty.  It  must  be  met  boldly  yet  prudently.  The  author 
has  received  numerous  testimonials  to  the  necessity  of  this  appeal.  Among 
others  the  following  opinion  from  the  late  lamented  Senator  Morton  is 
entitled  to  respect.  In  a  letter  to  the  author  this  able  and  patriotic  man 
thus  expressed  himself: — "The  labor  question  is  silenced,  but  not  settled. 
We  shall  have  trouble  upon  it  yet.  The  day  is  not  distant  .when  we  shall 
be  compelled  to  grapple  with  the  real  principles  and  claims  which  under- 
lie this  agitation.  The  future  of  our  country  is  largely  involved  in  the 
solution  of  this  matter.  For  that  reason  it  should  be  kept  before  the  pub- 
lic mind;  and  I  cannot  but  regard  your  letter  as  most  timely  and  useful." 
The  introductory  letter  of  the  Honorable  Thurlow  Weed,  is  written 
in  the  same  tone  and  spirit.  Other  similar  opinions  may  be  added ;  and 
apart  from  all  question  of  literary  merit  in  the  present  treatise  the  author 
entreats  a  discussion  of  the  subject,  on  the  ground  of  its  public  importance 
and  of  the  living  issues  involved.  For  h'mself  he  has  no  wish  to  appear 
otherwise  than  as  an  anonymous  contributor.  His  appeal,  therefore,  must 
be  examined  independently  of  personal  considerations.  He  has  not 
written  without  ample  opportunity  of  testing  the  opinions  of  public  men, 
and  of  workingmen,  too  ;  and  he  has  reason  to  know  that  thousands  are 
anxious  for  the  solution  of  this  difficulty,  and  thatthousands  are  willing  to 
co-operate  in  the  adoption  of  any  suitable  plans  to  that  end.  The  author 
proposes  to  examine  other  phases  of  this  great  social  problem ;  and  for 
any  information  which  may  facilitate  the'exposition'of  the  questions  raised, 
or  for  any  opinions,  honestly  expressed,  which  may  guide  him  in  his  in- 
quiries, he  will  tender  hearty  thanks.  All  such  communications,  whether 
written  or  printed,  will  promptly  reach  the  author,  if  addressed  to  him 
through  the  publishers.  And  now,  whatever  may  be  the  merits  or  demerits 
of  this  production,  it  is  sent  forth  on  its  mission  with  an  earnest  hope 
and  prayer  that  it  may,  at  least,  arouse  in  others  some  anxious  inquiry, 
or  some  generous  impulse. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 


It  is  the  object  of  the  present  paper  to  consider 
calmly  some  of  the  great  questions  which  arise  out  of 
the  labor  difficulties  in  the  United  States.  The  relative 
positions  of  employers  and  employed,  and,  still  more,  the 
prerogative  and  duty  of  the  Governmen  in  reference  to 
each,  may  yet  be  more  clearly  defined. 

«  THE  RECENT  CRISIS. 

Without  doubt  the  country  is  passing  ^>ugh  a 
singularly  grave  crisis.  Not  even  the  Great  Rebellion 
threatened  more  disastrous  results  to  the  social  fabric. 
Within  a  very  short  period  scenes  have  been  enacted  at 
which  humanity  shudders.  It  is  seldom  that,  in  any 
civilized  community,  much  less  und<>-  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  United  States,  such  utter  lawlessness  prevails.  The 
story  forms  a  sad  sequel  to  our  Centennial  .jubilation  ; 
yet,  like  the  beacon's  flickering  glare,  it  warns  of  danger 
in  the  distance.  A  blush  may  tinge  the  cheeks  of  future 
historians  as  they  describe  how  civil  and  military  author- 
ity was  resisted,,  how  life  and  property  were  sacrificed, 
and  how  a  "  reign  of  terror  "  was  virtually  established, 
by  misguided,  unthinking,  infuriated  men — and  all  for 
what?  yet  from  the  smouldering  ashes  of  the  strife  may 
be  deduced  the  lessons  which  will  ensure  our  future 
peace. 


4  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

IS  THE  CRISIS  ENDED? 

Is  it  impertinent  to  enquire  whether  the  difficulty  is 
settled  ? — whether  the  misunderstandings  between  em- 
ployers and  employed  are  adjusted  ? — whether  labor  will 
hereafter  receive  its  due  reward,  and  capital  be  apprecia- 
ted at  its  proper  worth  ? — and  whether  the  country  will 
enjoy,  without  the  danger  of  such  volcanic  eruptions, 
the  benefits  of  generous  enterprise,  and  well  directed 
toil? 

The  common  assumption  is  .that  the  "  strike  "  has 
ended.  In  bold  and  flaming  type  the  newspapers  have 
announced  the  "  collapse "  of  the  insurrection — the 
"  restoration  "  of  order — the  "  resumption  "  of  trade  ; 
and  following  close  upon  such  announcements  have  been 
appeals  for  vengeance,  and  promises  of  reform.  Bi^does 
not  the  language  used  betray  a  secret  uneasiness  ?  Is 
there  not  a  suppressed  fear  that  a  worm  is  gawing  at 
the  root  of  our  social  system  ? — that  a  canker  is  poison- 
ing the  streams  of  our  national  life  ?  There  is  a  lull  in 
the  storm — a  suspension  of  hostilities — a  subsidence  of 
the  primal  causes  of  the  recent  violent,  foolish,  wicked 
outbreak.  But  is  it  not  palpable  that  neither  party  has 
frankly  and  unequivocally  given  way? — that  the  opera- 
tive classes  "have  not  renounced  their  demands  ? — that  the 
railway  companies  have  not  yielded  to  dictation? — that 
thovisands  of  the  unemployed  are  still  clamoring  for 
bread  ?  At  best  there  is  a  hollow  truce. 

ELEMENTS    OF   DANGER. 

The  complicated  questions  which  underlie  the  whole 
remain  untouched.  All  the  brutal  passions  which  have 
lately  broken  loose  are  only  placed  in  temporary  check. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  5 

In  millions  of  hearts  and  homes  new  thoughts  are  spring- 
ing up, — new  claims  are  ready  to  be  enforced.  As  well 
attempt,  in  Canute  fashion,  to  bid  the  rolling  tide  be 
still,  as  try  to  stop  the  onward  flow  of  human  life,  or  set 
at  naught  the  rights  which  are  supposed  to  be  insepar- 
able from  a  oneness  of  origin,  or  a  unity  of  relation. 
There  are  in  our  very  midst  elements  of  future  strife. 
The  embers  of  a  blind,  insensate  passion  are  smoulder- 
ing on  every  side.  A  policy  of  repression,  whether  by 
authority  or  by  bribe,  cannot  permanently  avail  to  allay 
the  evil  spirit.  There  is  ample  evidence  to  show  that  in 
their  restless  struggles  for  independence  and  power  the 
working  classes  are  assuming  giant  proportions,  and  ac- 
quiring a  Samson-like  strength.  As  with  that  redoubt- 
able hero  of  Scripture  history,  an  effort  may  be  made 
to  bind  down  the  rising  giant  with  fetters  of  brass  or 
gold.  The  danger  is  lest  these  chains  should  suddenly 
give  way,  and  lest  in  the  terrible  rebound  the  popular 
fury,  like  an  uncaged  monster,  should  shake  the  pillars 
of  State,  and  overwhelm  the  nation  in  calamity  and  woe. 
It  is  against  this  danger  that  we  have  to  guard.  The 
danger  is  not  imaginary.  Whether  or  not  we  open  our 
eyes  to  the  fact,  we  are  walking  upon  a  very  combust- 
ible mine, — standing  at  the  brink  of  an  overcharged 
furnace. 

The  evil  is  at  present  within  our  grasp;  the  danger  is 
subject  to  our  control.  Will  it  not  be  wise  to  arrest  its 
progress  in  due  time?  It  is  possible  to  do  this  ;  but  it 
must  be  done  by  other  methods  than  those  hitherto  ap- 
plied. The  process  of  indiscriminate  slaughter,  as  rec- 
ommended by  some  writers,  will  wholly  fail.  Equally  so 
the  common  expedient  of  flattery  and  bribery  can  result 
in  no  permanent  good.  By  such  means  the  fundamen- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 


tal  question  is  ignored.  It  seems  hardly  to  be  conceded 
that  working  men  have  rights  ;  it  is  openly  denied  that 
they  have  any  ground  of  complaint.  Here  the  issue  is 
joined  ;  and  here  is  seen  one  of  the  lamentable  conse- 
quences of  the  recent  trouble.  In  the  disorder  which 
ensued  the  "  strike  "  degenerated  into  riot.  The  former 
was  legitimate,  however  foolish  ;  and  so  long  as  the 
strikers  confined  themselves  within  the  bounds  of  law, 
they  had  a  right  to  claim  the  protection  of  law.  But 
when  orderly  resistance  changed  into  open  rebellion, 
and  when  a  peaceful  protest  was  followed  by  a  violent 
crusade  against  property  and  life,  then  the  safety  of  so- 
ciety was  endangered,  and  it  was  necessary  for  the  civil 
ruler  and  the  military  power  to  interfere. 

This  distinction  must  be  kept  in  view,  especially 
since  one  of  the  railway  companies  seriously  implicated 
has  officially  declared  that  not  more  than  ten  per  cent, 
of  their  men  took  part  in  the  strike,  and  that  even  those 
were  intimidated  to  do  so  by  men  who  had  no  con- 
nection with  the  railway  service..  Whether  or  not  it  is 
wise  on  abstract  principles  to  strike  at  any  time  is  a 
question  which  does  not  yet  turn  up  for  discussion.  The 
fact  with  which  we  are  confronted  is  that  a  "strike"  on 
a  gigantic  scale  has  taken  place.  That  strike  was 
obviously  the  result  of  a  preconcerted  plan,  as  it  proved 
to  be  the  precursor  of  a  series  of  outrages  which  have  tar- 
nished our  reputation,  and  cast  a  stigma  upon  civiliza- 
tion itself.  The  question  of  primary  moment,  therefore, 
is  whether  any  justification  can  be  found  for  the  late 
disturbance?  That  question  must  be  viewed  in  two 
aspects,— as  it  relates  both  to  employers  and  em- 
ployed. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  7 

ALLEGED  CAUSES  OF  THE  STRIKE. 

By  the  former  it  is  urged  that  a  reduction  of  wages 
was  necessary.  A  general  shrinkage  had  taken  place  in 
the  value  of  public  property.  In  that  depreciation  rail- 
way property  suffered  a  corresponding  decline.  The 
amount  of  traffic  was  reduced  ;  the  charge  for  freightage 
was  lessened ;  the  working  and  incidental  expenses 
were  increased;  the  payment  of  interest  on  bonds 
had  to  be  met  ;  and,  altogether,  that  undesirable 
state  of  financial  embarrassment  was  reached  when  the 
ordinary  income  did  not  meet  the  inevitable  expenditure. 
The  result  was  that  no  dividend,  or  but  a  very  small  and 
uncertain  dividend,  could  be  paid  to  stockholders,  and 
that,  in  reality,  many  of  the  railway  companies  were 
bordering  upon  insolvency.  It  is  generally  admitted 
that  the  latter  statements  are  true.  Thousands  of  per- 
sons have  had  proof  of  this  in  the  loss  of  their  property, 
and  in  consequent  privation  and  hardship  ;  whilst  the 
very  low  figures  at  which  railway  stocks  are  still  quoted, 
in  both  the  American  and  British  markets,  afford  evi- 
dence of  public  distrust. 

But  admitting  the  necessity  of  a  reduction  of  ex- 
penses, the  question  is  next  raised  whether  that  reduc- 
tion should  be  made  solely,  or  principally,  through  the 
wages  of  the  workmen  ?  The  rate  of  wages,  it  is  pleaded, 
had  already  been  brought  down  to  a  very  low  point. 
At  the  prevailing  price  of  provisions,  of  wearing  ap- 
parel, of  house  rent,  and  of  the  general  necessaries  of 
life,  it  is  difficult  for  the  most  frugal  to  secure  ordinary 
comforts  for  themselves  and  their  families,  and  yet  pre- 
serve harmony  between  their  income  and  expenditure. 
In  some  cases,  too,  even  this  small  remuneration  had 


8  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

been  paid  with  great  irregularity;  so  that  from  one  to 
two,  and  even  three  months,  have  passed  without  a 
"  settling."  A  reduction  in  these  wages,  therefore, 
of  from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent.,  without  a  correspond- 
ing reduction  in  the  time  and  amount  of  labor  required — 
yea,  in  some  cases,  with  a  positive  increase  of  these — 
involved  a  further  curtailment  of  the  power  to  live 
honestly  and  comfortably,  and  had  very  much  the 
appearance  of  injustice  and  oppression. 

In  view  of  these  facts  it  is  not  surprising  that  the 
question  should  have  been  raised  by  the  railway  em- 
ployees and  their  friends  whether  the  whole  difficulty 
could  not  be  met  by  a  general  reduction  of  expenses  ? 
by  the  abolition  of  needless  and  useless  offices  ?  by 
lessening  the  superfluous  salaries  which  are  paid  to 
directors,  superintendents,  chairmen,  and  other  officials, 
who  contribute  nothing  to  the  practical  working  of 
the  companies,  and  some  of  whom  are  not  even  orna- 
mental figure-heads  ?  and,  in  short,  by  a  reorganization 
of  the  whole  system,  through  which  economy  and  effi- 
ciency could  be  secured  ?  And  should  these  things  fail, 
then  would  it  not  be  well  to  ask  the  public,  for  whose 
convenience  the  railway  system  is  established,  to  con- 
tribute a  fair  share  of  the  increased  income  required  by 
acquiescing  in  a  small — almost  imperceptible  addition 
to  passengers'  fares,  and  to  the  rates  of  freightage  ? 
The  loss,  if  any,  it  is  said,  would  thus  be  equally  divided; 
and  by  distributing  the  burden  to  be  carried  over  so 
wide  a  surface  no  particular  back  would  be  broken,  and 
no  individual  interest  would  suffer. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  9 

EMBARRASSMENTS   OF   RAILWAY    COM- 
PANIES. 

In  this  view  of  the  matter  there  is,  at  least,  an  air  of 
plausibility.  It  may,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  say  why  this 
proposition  should  not  be  accepted  as  reasonable  and 
just.  On  both  sides  it  is  admitted  that  the  value  of  rail- 
way property  has  declined,  that  receipts  have  been  less, 
and  expenses  greater  than  for  some  years  previously. 
In  this  admission  so  much  is  gained;  it  is  really  the 
first  step  towards  an  amicable  adjustment  of  the  diffi- 
culty. But  following  upon  this,  is  it  not  necessary  to 
make  a  full,  impartial  inquiry  into  the  causes  which 
have  led  to  this  depreciation  of  stock,  and  this  loss  of 
income  ? 

The  phenomenon  is  not  satisfactorily  explained  by  the 
sole  consideration  of  bad  trade.  Has  there  not  been,  in 
too  many  instances  a  system  of  unprincipled  and 
suicidal  competition,  through  which  legitimate  charges 
have  been  reduced,  and  extravagant  expenses  incurred, 
and  by  the  operation  of  which  both  income  and  effici- 
ency have"  been  impaired  ?  As  in  part  the  result  of  this 
insane  policy,  have  not  many  of  the  lines  been  allowed 
to  fall  into  bad  repair?  Has  not  much  of  the  rolling 
stock  been  so  neglected  and  injured  that  it  is  now 
practically  unfit  for  use  ?  Have  not  extravagant  sums 
been  lavished  on  the  construction  and  embellishment  of 
buildings,  offices,  carriages,  and  other  things,  which 
neither  the  business  of  the  companies,  nor  the  conveni- 
ence of  the  public,  has  required,  and  which  whilst  add- 
ing to  luxury  have  diminished  comfort  ?  And,  finally, 
is  it  not  true  that  in  the  development  of  this  policy,  in 
the  application  of  these  tactics,  new  offices  have  been 
created,  new  agents  employed,  new  regulations  en- 


10  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM 

forced,  and  new  dangers  incurred,  which  have  added 
nothing  to  order  and  regularity  in  the  working  of  the 
lines,  which  have  engendered  public  distrust  and  im- 
poverishing rivalry,  and  all  of  which  might  have  been 
dispensed  with  without  loss  of  prestige  and  power. 

IMPOLICY    OF    RAILWAY    ADMINISTRATION. 

These,  if  true,  are  grave  and  startling  charges;  and 
can  they  be  denied  ?  In  face  of  the  overwhelming 
evidence  to  the  contrary,  no  reponsible  railway  authori- 
ties in  the  land  will  dare  to  call  them  in  question.  They 
suggest  a  false  and  corrupt  system,  the  full  development 
of  which  can  only  lead  to  mischief,  if  not  to  ruin.  At 
the  basis  of  such  system  there  is  a  gross  disregard  of 
the  first  principles  of  commercial  integrity  and  honor." 
An  expense  is  needlessly  created,  which  from  natural 
resources  there  is  not  ability  to  pay.  With  reckless 
criminality  the  lives  of  the  public  are  endangered  to 
gratify  the  passions  of  scheming  and  antagonistic 
boards;  and  to  compensate  in  part  for  the  losses  occa- 
sioned by  mismanagement,  by  extravagance,  by  acci- 
dent, by  fraud,  the  efficiency  of  the  lines  must  be  im- 
paired, and  honest  and  industrious  employees  must  be 
reduced  in  their  wages — ground  down  to  penury  and 
starvation. 

It  is  in  the  latter  consideration  that  the  iniquity  of  the 
proceeding  is  mostly  manifest.  Is  it  fair  that  the  inno- 
cent should  thus  suffer  for  the  guilty?  In  the  reduced 
remuneration  it  has  been  proposed  to  offer,  is  there  an 
honest  compensation  for  the  work  exacted  from  them, 
whether  considered  in  the  time  consumed,  or  in  the 
ability  exerted  ?  and  is  it  really  an  adequate  provision 
for  the  common  expenses  and  necessaries  of  life — for 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  II 

food  and  clothing,  for  rent  and  recreation  ?  The  labor- 
ing classes  must  have  these  things.  It  is  not  luxury 
that  is  thought  of.  They  have  been  born — inured  to  toil; 
and  by  the  sweat  of  their  brow,  and  the  straining  of 
their  nerves,  they  are  willing — anxious  to  earn  their 
bread.  But  they  want  bread  enough  to  satisfy  their 
hunger ;  they  want  homes  in  which  they  can  have 
privacy,  and  comfort,  and  health;  and  they  want,  some- 
times, to  be  enabled  to  breathe  the  exhilarating  air  of 
heaven,  to  drink  in  the  beauties  of  nature,  and  to  feast 
their  minds  upon  the  wonders  of  literature  and  art. 

With  the  wages  proposed  for  them  this  is  next  to  im- 
possible. The  prices  charged  for  ordinary  things  neces- 
sarily restrict  their  purchases  within  a  narrow  circle. 
Many  of  the  comforts  they  may  desire  are  wholly  be- 
yond their  means.  It  is  doubtful  whether  they  can  al- 
ways obtain  enough  of  what  is  absolutely  necessary, 
when  there  is  a  large  family  to  support,  and  when  sick- 
ness invades  the  dwelling.  If  the  wages  are  paid  regu- 
larly as  they  fall  due,  there  can  be  little  to  spare  for 
superfluities,  or  to  put  by  against  "a  rainy  day,"  when 
the  landlord  has  been  paid  his  rent,  and  when  other  ne- 
cessary expenses  are  met.  In  a  more  marked  degree 
therefore,  there  must  be  restriction  and  privation  when 
their  honest  earnings  are  withheld  for  two  or  three 
months,  and  when,  in  consequence  of  this,  they  have  to 
contract  debts  at  the  stores,  upon  which  they  virtually 
pay  an  exorbitant  interest,  besides  being  compelled  to 
take  an  inferior  quality  of  goods.  Such  an  infamous 
practice  may  not  be  common  with  every  railway  com- 
pany, but  it  does  apply  to  some;  and  if  it  is  not  known  it 
should  be,  that  during  the  recent  trouble  some  railway 
operatives  received  notice  of  a  reduction  of  their  wages, 


12  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

whilst  at  that  very  time  their  employers  were  consider- 
ably in  arrears  in  the  payment  of  wages,  and  hundreds 
of  men  were  bearing  the  inconvenience  and  hardship 
with  heroic  courage — in  uncomplaining  silence — with  a 
praiseworthy  resignation. 

Is  such  treatment  honorable  and  just  ?     Does  it  re- 
cognize  the  first  element  of   our  social  brotherhood  ? 
Is  it  based  upon  the  golden  rule,  which  reason  suggests, 
and    Christianity   confirms,    that   we    should    do   unto 
others  as  we  would  they  should  do  unto  us  ?     Where  is 
the  railway  director  who  does  not  insist  upon  full   and 
prompt  payment  for  his  services  ?     Who  among  all  the 
officials  would  be  content  with  a  bare  subsistence  as  a 
reward  for  his  toil  ?   and  who,  still  more,  is  willing  to 
forego   any  portion  of    his    emolument,  or    any   mea- 
sure  of   his    luxury,   for  the   better   regulation  of  the 
company,  and  the  more  certain  payment  of  an  equitable 
dividend  to   hapless  shareholders  ?      What,  in  this  re- 
spect,  is    the    difference    between    directors    and    me- 
chanics?    Are  the  latter  supposed  be  to   more  willing 
than   the    former    to    make   a    sacrifice   for   the    pub- 
lic good,  or  for  the  benefit  of  their  employers  ?     Does 
it  enter  into  the  nature  of  their  engagement  to  do  this  ? 
Can  they  really  afford  to  relinquish  a  ten  or  twenty  per 
cent,  of  their  income  without  personal  injury,  or  family 
discomfort  ?     If  not,  is  it  equitable — yea,  is  it  humane, 
to  ask  them   to  do   it  upon  pain    of  instant  dismissal  ? 
Shall  they  have  no  voice  in  the  disposal  of  their  services, 
or  no   concurrent   action    in    regulating   the  terms  on 
which  those  services  are   to    be  render  and  received  ? 
This  surely  is  not  the  acme  of  our  nineteenth  century, 
civilization  ;  this  is  not   the  practical  developmenot  of 
our  lauded  doctrine  of  liberty  and  equality;  this  is  not 


THE   LABOR  PROBLEM.  13 

the  genuine  spirit  of  that  religion  which  claims  Jesus  for 
its  author,  and  which  breathes  universal  amity  and  love. 

DISTINCTIONS  AND  RELATIONS  OF  CLASSES. 

There  is  undoubtedly  an  important  distinction  be- 
tween the  positions  of  employer  and  employed.  It 
will  be  an  egregious  blunder — a  fatal  mistake,  to  con- 
found them.  But  that  distinction  neither  partakes  of 
the  feudal  relation  and  service  of  the  middle  ages,  nor 
implies  the  utter  abrogation  of  individual  freedom  and 
independence  so  characteristic  of  slavery  in  its  worst 
forms  in  the  Southern  States  prior  to  the  act  of  rebel- 
lion. There  is  rather  implied  or  suggested  a  state  of 
mutual  relationship  and  dependence,  based  primarily,  it 
may  be,  upon  considerations  of  self-interest,  but  entail- 
ing on  each  a  sacred  obligation,  and  resulting  from  the 
exercise  of  personal  volition.  In  trade  operations  neither 
class  can  proclaim  itself  independent  of  the  other.  As 
with  the  members  of  the  human  body,  each  is  essential 
to  the  completeness  of  the  whole.  Whilst  performing 
different  functions  they  are  each  promoting  a  general 
result,  and  so  inseparable,  indeed,  is  the  union  which 
may  and  does  exist  between  them  that  whatever  inci- 
dents affect  the  one,  whether  prosperously  or  adversely, 
will  indirectly,  at  least,  leave  their  impress  upon  the 
other.  In  the  employment  of  labor  the  capitalist  invests 
money,  and  for  that  he  has  a  right  to  expect  a  remune- 
rative return.  The  laborer,  on  the  other  hand,  whether 
mechanic  or  artisan,  supplies  the  strength  of  his  arms, 
the  skill  of  his  hands,  the  ingenuity  of  his  brain ;  and 
for  that  he  is  to  be  rewarded  according  the  the  time  ex- 
pended, or  the  work  performed,  or  any  other  clearly  de- 
fined, and  mutually  accepted  terms. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 


Between  capital  and  labor,  as  thus  understood,  there 

is  no  antagonism.   The  one  balances  the  other.    Each  has 

essential  rights  ;    and  upon  each  there  are  imperative 

duties.     Neither  can  be  neglected  without  contravening 

the  laws  of  God,  and  inflicting  a  wrong  upon  society. 

It  is  necessary  that  both  should  be  employed.     There  is 

no  gratuitous  favor  on  either  side.      Personal  interests 

are  first  promoted  by  the  arrangement,  and   through 

these  the  general  good  of  the  community  is  subserved. 

Is  the  employer,  therefore,  to  become  haughty  and  ex- 

acting? or  the  employed  to  grow  churlish  and  suspici- 

ous ?     Shall  the  one  demand  the  maximum  of  labor  for 

a  minimum  of  remuneration  ?  and,  Pharaoh  like,  virtu- 

ally require   bricks   without   furnishing   the   materials 

wherewith  to  make  them,  or  without  returning  a  just 

compensation  for  them  ?     Or  shall  the  other  clamor  im- 

petuously for  less   work    and   more  pay;  and  mindful 

only  of    self-indulgence,   disregard    the    authority   and 

claims  of  their  employers,  and  engage  in  their  respec- 

tive vocations  with   listlessness  and  grumbling?     No; 

for  in  either  case  there  would  be  a  violation  of  the  first 

elements  of    harmony  and  success.      Authority  is  the 

prerogative  of  one  ;  obedience  the  duty  of   the  other. 

Yet  the  two  are  so  related  that   neither  is  absolutely  in- 

dependent of  the  other;  nor  can  either  capital  or  labor, 

which  forms  the  basis  on  which  each  rests,  claim  any 

unwonted  degree  of  credit  for  the  service  it  renders,  as 

though  its  action    in  the  premises  were  supererogatory 

Where   there   is   money  there   is  also  a  corresponding 

obligation  to  employ  that  money  in  productive  industry, 

or  for  some  useful  end.     It  is  the  "  talent"  bestowed  by 

the  Universal    Proprietor,  not  for   selfish  gratification 

solely,  but  for  social  advantage  generally.     In  like  man- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  15 

ner  physical  strength  and  mental  skill,  unaccompanied 
by  pecuniary  resources  form  virtually  so  much  personal 
property  which  their  possessor  is  bound  to  employ  for 
his  own  and  for  others'  good,  and  by  which  the  wealth  of 
the  capitalist  may  be  rendered  remunerative  and  useful. 
The  one  is  the  counterpoise  of  the  other;  the  two  com- 
bined keep  the  wheels  of  business  in  motion,  and  fur- 
nish with  regularity  the  means  whereby  the  wants  of 
society  may  be  supplied. 

On  this  principle  the  employer  has  no  more  right  to 
oppress  his  men  than  the  employed  have  to  plot  against 
their  masters.  It  is  not,  or  should  not  be,  a  question  as 
to  how  much  work  can  be  extracted  from  the  men,  and 
how  little  money  be  paid  for  it,  on  the  one  hand;  or 
how  small  an  amount  of  service  can  be  performed  for 
the  highest  amount  of  wages,  on  the  other.  The  em- 
ployer is  guilty  of  injustice  and  fraud  who  under  pre- 
tence of  "  hard  times"  and  depreciated  capital,  attempts 
to  grind  down  his  men  to  the  dust,  and  out  of  their 
blood,  and  bones,  and  brains,  squeezes  as  by  some  hy- 
draulic pressure  the  means  of  personal  luxury  and  in- 
dulgence, without  providing  them  sufficiently  with  the 
"  one  thing  needful  "  for  their  own  wants.  Equally  so 
it  is  unreasonable  and  dishonest  for  workmen  in  any 
position  to  use  the  time  of  their  employers  for  any 
other  than  their  legitimate  work,  or  to  perform  that 
work  in  a  slovenly  and  inefficient  manner,  or  to  require 
more  for  it  in  the  shape  of  compensation  than  its  real 
merits  demand,  or  than  the  recognized  laws  of  trade,  or 
the  uniform  usages  of  society  warrant.  When  this  is 
done  on  either  side  it  disturbs  the  equilibrium  of  power, 
and  puts  the  whole  machinery  out  of  joint  ;  and  not 


l6  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

simply  the   parties  primarily  concerned,  but  the  whole 
community  is  injuriously  affected  by  the  result. 

INEQUALITY  AND  INJUSTICE. 

This,  it  is  alleged  by  the  railway  employees,  is  what 
the  companies  have  attempted  to  do.  So  far  from  deny- 
ing, the  authorities  have  rather  admitted  the  "  soft  im- 
peachment," and  have  pleaded  extenuation  from  the  ne- 
cessity of  the  times.,  None  of  them  have  had  the  temer- 
ity to  assert  that  the  reduced  wages  would  be  sufficient, 
considered  as  a  compensation  for  the  work  required,  or 
as  furnishing  adequate  means  for  the  supply  of  person- 
al and  domestic  wants.  This  unenviable  task  has  been 
left  to  a  few  writers  in  the  press  who  have  taken  a 
strongly  party  view  of  the  question,  and  many  of  whose 
articles  have  evinced  a  lamentable  confusion  of  idea,  if 
not  a  deliberate  purpose  to  ignore  the  rights  and  claims 
of  the  working  men.  No  fair  comparison  can  be 
made  between  the  actual  value  of  wages  paid  now  and 
the  wages  paid  twenty  years  ago,  for  the  very  simple 
reason  that  the  conditions  of  living  have  so  materially 
altered.  Before  the  war  house-rent  was  lower,  and 
both  food  and  clothing  were  cheaper  than  they  are  to- 
day. A  salary  of  two  dollars  per  day  then  would  prac- 
tically go  farther  than  three  dollars  per  day  now. 

It  is  doubtless  true,  according  to  the  very  hackneyed 
metaphor  which  has  lately  been  so  much  quoted,  that 
"  half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no  loaf "  at  all.  Only 
an  idiot  would  call  in  question  that  very  self-evident 
truth.  But  in  this  case  the  application  of  the  meta- 
phor fails.  The  question  is,  why  there  should  not  be 
a  whole,  instead  of  half  a  loaf  ?  With  good,  economi- 
cal management  would  the  need  exist  for  this  paring 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  17 

down  process  ?  Or,  if  unhappily,  it  become  necessary 
to  go  upon  "  short  commons,"  why  should  not  the  rule 
apply  to  managers  as  well  as  to  men?  It  seems  hardly 
fair  that  they  should  share  in  all  the  profit,  yet  suffer 
none  of  the  loss.  Equality  is  desired,  not,  indeed,  of 
position — for  that  can  never  be;  but  rather  in  principle 
and  spirit,  through  which  there  may  be  a  graduated 
scale  of  profit  and  loss,  according  to  the  capital  invest- 
ed, and  the  service  supplied. 

AN  IMPROVED  RAILWAY  POLICY. 
Acting  on  these  principles,  it  is  possible  for  railway 
companies  to  inaugurate  a  new  era  in  the  management 
of  their  business,  in  which  economy  and  justice  may  be 
the  prevailing  elements,  and  through  which  the  public 
interests  will  be  better  served,  and  the  condition  of  their 
employees  elevated  and  improved.  It  will  be  ruinous 
to  persist  in  the  old  lines  of  policy.  That  policy  is 
simply  suicidal.  The  wants  of  the  community  require 
— the  voice  of  the  community  demands  a  reorganization 
of  the  whole  system.  Not  the  enrichment  of  the  few  at 
the  expense  of  the  many,  must  be  the  object  sought, 
but  rather  the  abandonment  of  selfish  intrigues  and 
fraudulent  designs,  in  promotion  of  the  common  good. 
Such  a  change  may  more  readily  be  brought  about  by  a 
full  recognition  of  the  fact  that  mechanics,  engineers, 
conductors,  pointsmen,  and  every  other  class  of  railway 
operatives,  form  integral  parts  of  the  system.  They 
cannot  be  dispensed  with.  The  whole  organization  will 
come  to  a  standstill,  or  gradually  fall  to  pieces,  without 
their  services.  It  is  right,  therefore,  that  those  services 
should  be  estimated  at  their  full  value.  They  are  not 
to  be  demanded  without  an  equitable  compensation. 


l8  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

Our  railway  operatives  are  not — to  quote  Longfellow's 
phraseology,  "  like  dumb  driven  cattle."  It  is  their 
habit  to  reason  as  well  as  to  work.  The  service  they 
render  is  all  the  more  trustworthy  and  useful  in  that  it 
is  intelligent  and  voluntary ;  and  perhaps  one  of  the 
surest  signs  of  the  "good  time  coming,"  and  one  of  the 
most  effectual  steps  towards  the  abrogation  of  mis- 
understanding, and  the  perpetuation  of  order,  will  be 
for  railway  and  other  public  companies,  to  act  prompt- 
ly, generously,  sincerely,  and  justly  in  recognizing  the 
claims  of  their  men,  and  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of  their 
own  relations  towards  them. 

POSITION   AND    OBLIGATION  OF  WORKING- 
MEN. 

This,  however,  is  only  one  side  of  the  question.  There 
is  a  yet  graver  light  in  which  to  view  it.  It  would  be  a 
disastrous  .thing  to  engender  the  idea,  or  to  fencourage 
the  delusion,  that  workingmen  are  faultless.  In  too 
many  instances  there  is  a  virtual  assumption  of  infalli- 
bility on  their  behalf.  So  much  has  been  said  and  writ- 
ten on  the  vox  populi  vox  Dei  theory,  that  many  of  the 
working  classes  seem  foolishly  to  imagine. that  there  is 
invested  in  them  something  analogous  to  the  "  divine 
right"  of  kings,  and  that  in  virtue  thereof  they  have  an 
absolute  prerogative  to  control  at  once  the  course  of 
politics  and  the  state  of  trade. 

This  is  a  mistake.  There  is  nothing  in  nature  or  so- 
ciety to  warrant  the  assumption.  With  all  the  respect 
due  to  them,  submission  to  law  and  order  is  required 
from  them.  Yea,  more  than  this  ;  however  potent  may 
be  their  influence  because  of  their  predominating 
numbers,  they  are  bound  to  subordinate  that  influence 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  19 

to  the  general  harmony  of  society  rather  than  to  the 
gratification  of  the  selfish  schemes  and  passions  of  a 
particular  class.  Hence  resistance  to  the  properly  con- 
stituated  authority  of  the  nation  is  at  once  criminal  and 
foolish;  and  hence,  too,  the  enforcement  of  demands  in 
trade  relations,  whether  pertaining  to  work  or  wages, 
incompatible  with  a  ratified  agreement,  or  with  a  recog- 
nized usage,  or  with  a  due  regard  to  the  responsibilities 
and  claims  of  the  employers,  necessarily  disturbs  the 
proper  course  of  business,  and  leads  eventually  to  so- 
cial disorganization  and  distress. 

IMPOLICY  OF  THE  LATE  STRIKE. 

The  recent  strikes  have  developed  both  these  evils  in 
a  remarkable  degree.  It  may,  indeed,  be  allowed  that 
many  of  the  disturbances  which  are  deplored  were  caused 
principally  by  persons  who  are  unconnected  with  the 
railway  service — that  the  "roughs"  and  baser  elements  of 
society  took  advantage  of  what  was,  in  its  first  stages,  a 
legitimate  and  ordely  movement,  to  gratify  their 
ferocious  passions,  and  to  wreak  vengeance  upon  so- 
ciety for  plunder  and  crime.  Still,  the  question  may 
be  asked  whether  it  was  perfectly  justifiable,  and  if 
justifiable  on  abstract  grounds,  whether  it  was  wise  in 
its  practical  issues  to  force  the  collision  which  ensued 
between  employers  and  employed  ?  Was  there  a 
fair  consideration  of  the  condition  of  trade  in  the  coun- 
try, of  the  enormous  shrinkage  which  had  taken  place 
in  the  value  of  railway  property,  in  common  with  other 
real  estate,  and  of  the  difficulties  with  which  railway 
companies  had  to  contend  in  consequence  of  these 
things,  and  of  their  own  injudicious  arrangements  in 
the  past  ?  Was  there  any  thought  of  the  possibility  of 


2O  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

the  companies  refusing  the  demands  of  their  men?  of 
the  right,  or  of  the  best  course  to  pursue  should  such 
a  contingency  occur?  or  of  what  might  be  the  conse- 
quences to  themselves  and  to  the  country,  if  a  general 
strike  should  ensue,  and  if  through  that  there  should 
be  a  suspension  of  labor,  and  an  interruption  of  rail- 
way traffic  ?  And  estimating  these  things  at  their  ap- 
parent value,  was  there  as  the  result  of  them  the  expres- 
sion of  a  desire  to  hold,  or  the  adoption  of  any  open, 
honest,  organized  plans  for  a  friendly  conference  with 
the  authorities,  that  mutual  differences  and  claims  might 
be  frankly  stated  and  fairly  discussed,  and  that  the  actual 
or  supposed  difficulty  might  be  adjusted  upon  honorable 
and  satisfactory  terms  ? 

Had  such  a  method  been  adopted,  is  it  probable  that 
anything  like  the  dreadful  scenes  which  disturbed  the 
country  would  have  taken  place?— that  anything  ap- 
proaching to  a  general  stoppage  of  business  would  have 
occurred  ?  Would  not  reason  have  asserted  its  supremacy 
over  passion  ?  Would  not  prejudice  have  been  dis- 
armed, and  confidence  restored,  by  friendly  explanations 
and  kindly  appeals?  and  satisfied  that  the  interests 
of  employers  and  employed  were  substantially  one,  and 
that  by  their  harmonious  or  antagonistic  action  the  pros- 
perity of  the  whole  country  would  be  advanced  or  re- 
tarded, would  not  the  men  have  continued  steady  at 
their  work,  resolving  to  make  the  best  of  the  emergency  ? 
and  would  they  not  thereby  have  prevented  the  sacrifice 
of  both  property  and  life,  and  the  unspeakable  anguish 
which  has  since  rent  thousands  of  human  hearts  ? 

The  whole  proceeding  was  apparently  too  impulsive 
and  selfish.  No  other  interests  were  considered  than 
those  which  affected  the  classes  immediately  concerned. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  21 

Even  those,  indeed,  were  not  duly  appreciated,  or  greater 
deliberation  and  caution  would  have  been  practised.  And 
with  any  just  sense  of  the  right  of  citizenship,  or  the 
obligations  of  brotherhood,  with  any  deference  to  the 
claims  of  society,  or  any  attempt  to  exemplify  the  golden 
rule  of  doing  unto  others  as  we  would  others  should 
do  unto  us,  the  very  thought  would  have  been  repelled 
as  mean  and  dishonorable,  of  causing  employers  to  break 
their  engagements  with  the  public,  and  of  interrupting 
the  whole  business  relations  of  the  community.  When 
thus  fairly  viewed  the  mind  shrinks  from  the  recent  rail- 
way strike,  and  from  that  on  the  Grand  Trunk  Railway 
in  Canada  by  which  it  had  been  preceded,  as  involving 
a  breach  of  faith,  and  as  leading  to  the  gravest  public 
inconvenience.  In  this  respect  it  can  be  regarded  only 
as  an  unmitigated  evil. 

EVIL  OF  STRIKES  IN  GENERAL. 
Nor  can  a  more  modified  view  be  taken  of  the 
practical  character  and  effect  of  any  other  great  strike 
in  the  staple  industries  of  the  country.  The  same  re- 
lations subsist,  and  the  same  principles  substantially 
apply  in  mining  and  manufacturing  interests.  In  a 
proper  view  of  the  matter,  those  who  are  engaged  in 
those  various  callings  are  only  agents  of  the  public. 
They  engage  to  supply  a  certain  article  in  demand  upon 
stipulated  terms ;  and  any  violation  of  the  contract 
through  which  the  required  article  fails  in  its  production 
is  a  public  disappointment  and  loss.  To  stop  the  rail- 
way traffic  is  in  effect  to  cut  off  the  principal  means  of 
communication  and  transport  by  which  manufactured 
goods  may  be  distributed  through  the  country  ;  whilst 
to  close  the  factories  or  mines  is  to  cut  off  the  supply  at 


22  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

its  very  source,  and  thys  to  precipitate  a  state  of  general 
stagnation  and  distrust.  In  either  case  the  motive  is 
more  selfish  than  patriotic.  It  is  an  appeal  to  brute 
passion  rather  than  to  enlightened  reason.  By  injuring 
the  whole  it  aims  to  benefit  the  few  ;  and  in  seeking  to 
resist  a  may-be  too  partial,  and,  perhaps,  not  always  well 
regulated  system,  it  would  establish  in  its  place  a  blind 
and  irresponsible  despotism,  which  would  in  another 
form  perpetuate  and  intensify  the  very  evils  of  which  its 
promoters  complain.  This  is  unjust  to  society,  since, 
allowing  there  to  be  a  wrong  somewhere,  the  innocent 
is  made  to  suffer  for  the  guilty,  without  any  power  of 
voluntary  action  in  the  matter ;  and  since  it  is  a  direct 
contravention  of  one  of  the  fundamental  laws  of  moral- 
ity laid  down  by  the  Great  Teacher — "  Thou  shalt,  love 
thy  neighbour  as  thyself."  Nor  is  it  less  detrimental  to 
the  parties  primarily  concerned  ;  since  the  worst  passions 
of  their  nature  are  aroused,  and  since  they  must  of 
necessity  be  partakers  in  the  privations  and  sorrows 
which  inevitably  follow. 

Under  any  circumstances  a  strike  is  not  the  legiti- 
mate method  of  settling  a  dispute.  It  is  as  unjustifiable 
in  trade  as  war  is  between  nations.  There  is,  and  there 
can  be,  no  law  absolutely  to  prevent  a  strike,  inasmuch 
as  it  simply  resolves  itself  into  resistance  by  one  party  to 
a  contract  to  certain  terms  proposed  by  the  other.  The 
liberty  to  make  such  resistance  is  inseparable  from 
human  nature  and  from  our  'political  constitution  ;  and 
so  long  as  any  body  of  strikers  keep  themselves  within 
the  bounds  of  the  law  they  have  a  right  to  the  protection 
of  that  law.  But  those  who  choose  to  strike,  for  any 
reason  whatever,  have  no  right  to  interfere  with  those 
who  do  not  ;  and  for  any  strikers  to  attempt  to  prevent 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  23 

others  working  because  they  are*  willing  to  work  upon 
the  required  terms,  is  an  infringement  of  individual 
liberty,  and  a  virtual  conspiracy  against  the  order  and 
well-being  of  society.  The  threat  of  such  interference 
is,  to  begin  with,  unmanly  and  cowardly  ;  when  that 
threat  results  in  intimidation  and  violence,  then  a  public 
outrage  is  committed,  and  the  perpetrators  of  that  out- 
rage are  amendable  to  law,  and  should  be  punished  as 
disturbers  of  the  public  peace. 

OPPRESSION  AND  EVIL  OF  TRADES'  UNIONS. 
In  like  manner  all  combinations  of  men  which  par- 
take of  the  nature  of  trades'  unions  are  injurious  in 
practice,  if  not  false  in  principle.  They  may  begin  with 
a  good  motive;  but  they  end  in  bad  results.  As  volun- 
tary organizations,  formed  for  educational  or  protective 
purposes,  there  is  no  law  by  which  they  can  be  repressed; 
and,  in  so  far  as  they  promote  union  and  afford  protec- 
tion, they  prove  of  service  to  the  laboring  classes.  When, 
however,  those  combinations  assume  a  power  of  dicta- 
tion and  control,  both  over  their  own  members,  and  over 
the  industrial  classes  generally ;  and  when  they  enact 
laws,  and  insist  upon  terms,  which  destroy  freedom  of 
intercourse  between  employers  and  employed,  and  by 
virtual  terrorism  and  bondage  place  a  restriction  upon 
all  the  trade  operations  of  the  community,  except  as 
they  may  be  fashioned  upon  their  rule,  and  performed 
in  obedience  to  their  mandate,  then  they  obviously  usurp 
a  function  which  is  inimical  to  the  spirit  of  the  Consti- 
tution, and  to  the  orderly  regulation  of  society ;  and  as- 
suming, as  they  do  very  rapidly,  the  proportions  of  a 
colossal  despotism,  they  become,  like  Virgil's  monster — 
"  horrid,  hideous,  huge,  and  blind," — a  curse  rather  than 


24  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

a  blessing,  from  which*  humanity  revolts,  and  which  the 
law  should  hold  in  check. 

In  the  majority  of  instances  trades'  unions  are  under 
the  control  of  cunning  and  designing  men,  who  impose 
upon  the  credulity  of  the  laboring  classes,  and  through 
their  unsuspecting  agency  seek  the  gratification  of  their 
own  passions,  and  the  enrichment  of  their  own  purses. 
On  such  a  subject  experience  should  prove  a  trusty 
guide.  What  has  been  in  the  past  furnishes  a  fair 
index  of  what  may  be  expected  in  the  future.  In  the 
history  of  unions  and  strikes  there  is  scarcely  a  re- 
deeming feature.  The  good  they  have  sought  to  ac- 
complish has  been  vastly  counterbalanced  by  the  evil 
they  have  produced.  Had  the  primary  object  in  every 
instance  been  attained  it  would  utterly  fail  to  compen- 
sate for  the  sacrifices  entailed,  and  for  the  miseries  en- 
dured. It  is  rarely,  however,  that  a  strike  is  successful. 
The  employers  can  generally  hold  out  longer  than  the 
men.  It  is  impossible  that  unions  can  supply  funds  for 
the  support  of  their  members  beyond  a  given  point ; 
and  hence  after  the  loss  of  millions  of  dollars  in  wages, 
and  the  experience  of  sorrows  which  have  proved  worse 
than  the  "  bitterness  of  death,"  there  have  been  added 
shame  and  humiliation,  and  defeat.  Such  experience  as 
has  been  gained,  and  such  facts  and  figures  as  might  be 
presented  concerning  unions  and  strikes,  in  both  Great 
Britain  and  the  United  States,  ought  to  open  the  eyes  of 
the  working  classes  to  the  futility  of  strikes  in  general, 
and  to  the  sinister  motives  of  the  union" leaders  in  par- 
ticular. No  good  ever  has,  and  no  good  ever  will  spring 
from. them.  .It  is  contrary  to  the  law  of  nature.  As 
soon  expect  grapes  from  thorns,  or  figs  from  thistles,  as 
order  and  prosperity  from  the  unconstitutional  interfer- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  25 

ence  of  trades'  unions,  and  the  frenzied  but  powerless 
resistance  of  strikers. 

On  this  ground  alone,  apart  from  the  deplorable  ex- 
cesses into  which  it  degenerated,  the  late  railway  strike 
may  be  regretted  and  condemned  ;  and  chief  among  the 
lessons  which  the  laboring  classes  should  learn  from  the 
bitter  ordeal  through  which  they  have  passed  is  that 
which  teaches  the  advisability  of  their  withdrawing 
resolutely  from  such  combinations  and  such  movements. 
It  is  derogatory  to  their  character  to  be  identified  with 
them  ;  it  is  endangering  the  public  peace  to  aid  in  any 
form  in  carrying  into  effect  the  selfish  schemes  of  in- 
triguing men  who  denounce  authority  in  others  that 
they  may  become  tyrants  themselves,  and  whose  ambition 
it  is  to  make  the  working  classes  their  tools  and  slaves 
in  the  unequal  contest  they  wage ;  and  alike  for  their 
personal  independence  and  honor,  for  their  domestic 
comfort  and  social  order,  and  for  the  commercial  stabil- 
ity and  political  reputation  of  their  land,  working  men 
of  every  grade  should  eschew  connection  with  the 
unions,  and  with  the  strikes  they  originate.  With  the 
collapse  of  the  former,  the  danger  of  the  latter  will 
cease  ;  and  with  these  hydra-headed  monsters  crushed, 
a  firm  foundation  could  be  laid  for  industrial  co-opera- 
tion in  its  truest  sense,  when  upon  the  laboring  popula- 
tion of  the  country  an  era  of  prosperity  and  content- 
ment would  dawn. 

COMMUNISM    IMPRACTICABLE   AND    DE- 
STRUCTIVE. 

Even  this,  however,  would  not  warrant  the  assumption 
that  an  equal  division  of  property  should  be  made,  and 
that  henceforth  all  distinctions  in  society  should  be 


26  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM 

abolished.  It  is  one  of  the  wildest  of  chimeras  to 
imagine  that  there  can  be  a  perfect  equality  of  posses- 
sion and  position.  The  analogies  of  nature,  and  the 
history  of  the  world,  uniformly  discountenance  the  idea. 
In  the  primitive  church  even,  when  they  that  believed 
sold  their  possessions,  and  had  all  things  common,  there 
is  no  evidence  that  it  was  done  in  obedience  to  a  divine 
law,  or  that  it  was  intended  to  initiate  a  permanent  and 
universal  custom  as  characteristic  of  Christian  fellow- 
ship. All  the  evidence,  indeed,  shows  that  the  circum- 
stances were  exceptional,  and  that  the  act  itself  was 
voluntary.  Nor  did  the  practice  long  continue;  for  in 
the  development  of  the  Christian  idea — in  the  planting 
of  the  Christian  Church — there  was  manifested  not  only 
a  variety  of  intellectual  gifts,  and  a  diversity  of  spiritual 
offices,  but  also  a  wide  dissimilarity  in  the  character  and 
extent  of  worldly  possessions. 

This  in  every  age  and  place  is  a  necessary  result  of 
the  order  established  in  the  universe.  The  constitution 
of  society  requires  that  there  be  masters  and  servants. 
As  an  eminent  writer  has  observed,  were  all  to  start 
upon  a  level  to-day  in  point  of  worldly  goods,  the  dis- 
tinction between  rich  and  poor  would  spring  up  to- 
morrow. What  is  popularly  denominated  the  Com- 
munistic theory  is  both  illogical  and  impracticable.  It 
could  not  succeed,  simply  because  it  is  unnatural  ;  and 
the  only  instance  in  modern  times  in  which  the  experi- 
ment has  been  forced  upon  the  world  was  remarkable  as 
much  for  glaring  injustice  and  heartless  cruelty,  as  for 
ignorant  folly  and  selfish  ambition.  Those,  therefore, 
who  would  persuade  the  laboring  classes  that  labor  is  a 
badge  of  servitude,  and  as  such  incompatible  with  the 
spirit  of  freedom,  that  redemption  from  the  universal 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  2f 

thraldom  is  now  dawning,  and  that  in  the  good  time 
coming  there  will  be  between  all  classes  a  common  re- 
lation and  a  common  fund,  and  who  in  anticipation  of 
this  "promised  rest" — of  this  "  golden  age" — of  this 
"  elysium  of  the  gods  " — advise  resistance  to  authority, 
and  a  crusade  against  the  rights  of  property,  are  simply 
false  prophets,  blind  leaders  of  the  blind  ;  or,  what  is 
worse,  they  are  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing,  waiting  only 
their  opportunity  to  plunder  and  devour. 


A  GLARING  DELUSION. 

It  is  creditable  to  the  people  that  so  few  compara- 
tively have  been  led  astray  by  this  delusion.  A  mo- 
ment's reflection  must  convince  them  of  the  utter  in- 
sincerity of  those  who  would  thus  ensnare  them.  Has 
there  been  a  single  instance  in  which  these  Communist 
leaders  have  evinced  a  disposition  to  make  common 
cause  with  their  poorer  brethren  by  an  equal  distribu- 
tion of  their  goods  ?  If  they  possess  real  estate,  or  can 
boast  of  a  good  bank  account,  have  they  shown  any  wil- 
lingness to  renounce  their  proprietorship,  and  to  throw 
all  into  a  common  fund,  that  distribution  might  be  made 
to  every  man  according  as  he  has  need  ?  That  is  an 
argument  of  another  kind.  Consistency  requires  its 
application  ;  and  the  reluctance  of  those  who  would  be 
the  founders  of  a  new  social  era  to  ratify  their  repre- 
sentations by  their  example,  is  suggestive  of  a  conscious- 
ness that  their  theory  is  unsound,  and  that  their  promi- 
ses are  delusive. 


28  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

THE  WAY  TO  WEALTH  AND  INDEPENDENCE. 

That  the  laboring  classes  may  acquire  not  only  a 
competent  income,  but  an  independent  fortune,  their 
best  friends  heartily  desire.  Nothing  would  be  more 
gratifying  than  to  see  them  and  their  families  well 
dressed,  to  know  that  their  tables  are  well  supplied, 
and  to  find  evidence  in  their  possession  of  good  depos- 
its in  the  banks,  and  of  safe  investments  in  real  estate. 
These  things  would  add  immeasurably  to  their  self- 
respect,  to  their  social  independence,  to  their  po- 
litical power  ;  and  they  would  contribute  proportion- 
ately to  the  wealth  and  independence  of  the  State.  Nor 
are  these  possessions  really  unattainable  by  the  ma- 
jority of  working  men  ;  but  they  must  be  acquired  by 
industry  and  frugality  rather  than  by  fraud  and  force. 
How  can  men  honestly  claim  that  for  which  they  have 
not  toiled,  or  which  has  never  enriched  their  families  ? 
Even  to  "  covet  "  that  which  another  has  earned  by  hard 
work,  or  successful  speculation,  or  inherited,  maybe, 
from  fortunate  ancestors,  is  prohibited  by  the  moral  law. 
Much  more  dishonorable  and  iniquitous  would  it  be 
to  enter  into  any  conspiracy  against  the  rights  of  prop- 
erty, or  to  resort  to  any  trickery  and  violence  by  which 
the  heritors  of  private  property  might  be  dispossessed, 
or  the  treasures  of  public  funds  become  subject  to  mob 
control. 

In  such  a  contingency  the  weak  and  virtuous  would 
suffer  ;  the  strong  and  brutal  would  triumph.  Where 
order  is  now  supreme,  anarchy  would  run  riot ;  and  for 
well-regulated,  albeit  but  poorly  compensated  labor, 
there  would  gradually  spring  up  a  condition  of  univer- 
sal indolence,  with  all  its  concomitant  woes.  The  work- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  29 

ing  classes,  of  all  others,  have  most  reason  to  dread  the 
inauguration  of  such  a  revolting  injustice.  They  would 
prove  eventually  the  most  pitiable  victims.  Their  best 
interests  would  be  sacrificed  ;  their  most  sacred  and 
cherished  rights  would  be  trampled  in  the  dust.  Those, 
therefore,  who  would  persuade  them  to  lend  their  influ- 
ence in  furtherance  of  any  crusade  against  capital,  or  in 
promoting  the  adoption  of  any  Communistic  platform, 
are  their  veriest  enemies — traitors  alike  to  the  working- 
men  and  to  the  State.  The  laboring  classes  should  re- 
nounce intercourse  with  them,  should  reprobate  their 
insidious  designs,  should  boldly  denounce  their  revolu- 
tionary ideas  ;  and  whether  or  not  they  are  satisfied 
with  present  industrial  arrangements,  or  with  the  rate 
of  compensation  they  now  receive  for  the  work  they  per- 
form, they  should  proclaim  with  no  uncertain  voice,  in 
no  equivocal  terms,  but  in  language  which  every  class 
may  understand,  and  in  terms  which  shall  vibrate 
through  the  universal  heart,  that  they  wish  to  acquire 
independence  and  wealth  only  by  manly,  virtuous  toil  ; 
and  that  whatever  struggles  may  betide  them  it  shall  be 
their  ambition  to  reverence  authority  and  to  obey  law. 

WORKINGMEN  IN  POLITICS. 

In  this  connection  it  is  not  impertinent  to  express  a 
doubt  as  to  whether  the  movement  recently  started  for 
the  formation  of  a  Political  Labor  Party  will  be  attend- 
ed with  any  satisfactory  results.  The  place  of  the  work- 
ing man  in  politics,  as  the  phrase  goes,  it  is  neither 
difficult  to  determine,  nor  just  to  deny.  He  is  without 
doubt  a  power  in  politics,  especially  during  election 
times.  The  astutest  politician  knows  full  well  the  value 


30  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

of  his  vote  and  influence.  It  is  a  pity  that  so  much 
disreputable  trickery  is  adopted  to  secure  them.  The 
tendency  is  to  debase  the  public  mind,  and  to 
prevent  the  legitimate  exercise  of  the  political  fran- 
chise. It  proves  conclusively,  however,  that  the  work- 
ing classes  can  influence  in  a  very  appreciable  degree 
the  issues  of  a  contest;  and  it  suggests  that  to  the  wants 
and  wishes  of  such  important  factors  in  the  State,  re- 
spectful consideration,  at  least,  is  due. 

There  cannot  be  a  doubt  that  workingmen  are 
often  deluded  by  promises  which  were  never  meant  to 
be  fulfilled.  Candidates  for  municipal  honors,  for  State 
Legislatures,  and  even  for  Congress  itself,  readily  com- 
mit themselves  to  assurances  of  reform  for  the  benefit 
of  the  country  in  general,  and  of  the  workingmen  in 
particular,  in  order  thereby  to  ensure  their  suffrages  on 
election  day.  When  the  election  is  over  the  promises 
are  forgotten.  The  object  henceforth  to  be  aimed  at 
by  the  successful  candidates  is  personal  emolument 
rather  than  the  public  good.  Hence  corrupt  bargains 
are  formed ;  hence  fraudulent  issues  are^raised  ;  hence 
jobbery  and  robbery  reign  supreme;  and  hence  in  the 
struggle  which  ensues  for  office  and  gain  the  working 
classes  are  more  neglected,  more  impoverished,  and  more 
abused.  They  have,  therefore,  just  reason  for  complaint ; 
and  any  arrangement  by  which  a  loftier  standard  can  be 
raised,  and  a  healthier  tone  can  be  given  to  our  system, 
and  through  which  the  domestic  and  social  interests  of 
the  great  masses  of  the  people  can  be  more  effectually 
advanced,  will  prove  of  lasting  advantage  to  the  nation. 
But  it  is  more  than  doubtful  whether  this  can  be  done 
by  the  formation  of  a  distinct  labor  party.  The  need  is 


THE    LABOR  PROBLEM.  3! 

not  sufficient,  the  basis  is  not  wide  enough  to  warrant 
the  hope  of  success.  There  is  hardly  a  district  through- 
out the  whole  Union  in  which  a  labor  candidate,  con- 
sidered simply  as  such,  would  have  a  fair  prospect  of 
being  returned  to  Congress  in  face  of  the  opposing  in- 
fluences against  which  he  would  have  to  struggle. 

EFFICIENT  LEGISLATION  NEEDED. 

Nor  is  it  indeed  an  exclusive  system  of  class  legisla- 
tion that  is  now  specially  desired.  Such  legislation  is 
of  necessity  partial ;  and  while,  perchance,  it  may  bene- 
fit some  particular  interest  or  trade,  in  doing  that  it  may 
undesignedly  inflict  injury  upon  others.  In  a  well- 
regulated  community  all  the  various  interests  quietly 
harmonize;  and  the  aim  of  the  Government  should  be 
to  conserve  and  benefit  the  whole,  rather  than  to  be- 
friend one  at  the  expense  of  the  rest.  In  choosing  repre- 
sentatives for  the  people  those  should  be  preferred  who 
are  characterized  for  their  intelligence  and  independence, 
for  their  integrity  and  humanity  ;  who  will  take  a  just 
and  comprehensive  view  of  all  the  relations  and  circum- 
stances of  the  country,  and  who  will  strictly  and  consci- 
entiously aim  to  preserve  peace  and  promote  prosperity. 
With  such  men  the  interests  of  the  working  classes  will 
be  safer,  and  the  general  legislation  of  the  country  will 
be  better  attended  to  than  if  inexperienced  and  incom- 
petent men  be  elected  solely  because  they  are  identified 
with,  or  represent  some  particular  trade  or  institution. 
The  country  needs  patriots,  not  mercenaries ;  and  the 
laboring  classes  will  render  essential  service  by  throw- 
ing their  influence  into  a  movement  for  the  election  of 
such  men,  This  may  require  organization  ;  and  organ- 


32  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

ization  there  should  be.  That,  however,  does  not  in- 
volve the  formation  of  a  new  party,  distinct  from  and 
antagonistic  to  the  existing  parties,  and  committed  to 
the  nomination  and  support  of  certain  candidates. 

ABROGATION  OF    OLD  POLITICAL  PARTIES. 

It  is  perhaps  time  that  old  party  lines  were  to  a 
great  extent  broken  down.  The  party  shibboleth  has 
become  a  curse  to  the  nation.  Both  Republicans  and 
Democrats  have  been  exacting  and  corrupt ;  and  in  the 
bitter,  relentless  war  they  are  waging  with  each  other 
they  are  blasting  the  reputation,  and  annulling  the  in- 
fluence of  their  land.  One  is  not  one  whit  Better  than 
the  other.  Neither  has  been  true  to  its  professions ;  and 
neither  has  any  special,  exclusive  claim  to  be  considered 
the  workingman's  party.  The  history  of  each  is 
stamped  with  extravagance  and  fraud  ;  and  few  tears 
need  be  shed  as  their  knell  is  sounded,  and  their  re- 
quiem pronounced.  It  will  be  wise  for  workingmen  to 
stand  aloof  from  party  organizations,  and  to  remain  un- 
pledged for  future  votes.  Their  vantage  ground  is 
high.  One  false  step  may  rob  them  of  their  prize. 
They  should  resist  blandishment  and  bribe;  they 
should  scorn  corruption  and  crime.  What  they  want  is 
good  government,  good  legislation,  good  trade,  good 
food,  good  homes ;  and,  indeed,  a  general  improve- 
ment in  the  condition  and  affairs  of  the  nation. 

And  these  things  are  within  their  reach— yea,  easy 
to  attain,  if  the  right  men  be  elected  to  office.  The 
working  classes  themselves  should  judge  of  the  fitness 
of  a  candidate  by  the  record  of  his  life.  Some  men 
now  in  office  should  never  receive  another  vote.  They 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  33 

are  covered  with  infamy.  With  the  best  opportunities 
for  doing  good,  they  have  schemed  and  plundered  only 
to  enrich  themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  people.  Let 
them  be  forever  tabooed  ;  and  whether  the  nominees  of 
Tammany  Hall,  or  of  Republican,  or  Democratic  Con- 
ventions, no  candidates  should  receive  the  suffrages  of 
the  workingmen  who  have  been  identified  with 
"  Rings,"  who  have  been  convicted  of  bribery  and  cor- 
ruption, who  have  shown  an  incompetency  for  office, 
who  have  been  recklessly  extravagant  of  the  public 
money,  and  who  cannot  prove  themselves  to  be  both  able 
and  patriotic.  The  result  would  be  a  very  speedy 
change  in  both  the  enaction  and  administration  of  law, 
in  the  trade  of  the  country,  and  in  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  people  ;  and  without  even  the  forma- 
tion of  a  distinct  labor  party,  the  working  classes  would 
be  better  attended  to  than  at  any  former  time. 

THE   POSSIBILITY  OF  MISUNDERSTANDINGS. 

When  the  best  has  been  done  to  pr-event  them  diffi- 
culties will  somes  arise  between  employers  and  employed. 
In  the  complications  of  trade  it  may  be  necessary  to  re- 
adjust prices,  or  to  impose  fresh  regulations  for  the 
hours  of  work,  etc.  These  may  appear  to  the  men,  at 
first  sight,  as  oppressive,  and  may  tend  to  excite  a  spirit 
of  resistance.  That  is  the  time  for  mutual  deliberation, 
— for  friendly  conference.  A  difference  of  opinion  need 
not  engender  antagonism  of  feeling.  As  we  have  seen, 
the  interests  are  one;  and  often  a  proper  explanation 
at  the  start  would  suffice  to  prevent  future  trouble. 

It  is  not  reasonable  that  employers  should  assume  to 
make  any  alterations  which  in  their  judgment  circum- 


34  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

stances  may  warrant,  relying  upon  the  acquiescence  of 
their  men,  without  vouchsafing  any  explanatory  re- 
mark, or  any  conciliatory  promise.  There  is  too  much 
of  the  arrogant  and  despotic  in  such  a  course.  It  is 
based  essentially  on  the  old,  abrogated  law  of  slavery, 
which  says  to  a  man  "  go,  and  he  goeth  ;  and  to  another, 
come,  and  he  cometh  ;  and  to  my  servant  do  this,  and  he 
doeth  it." 

Neither  is  it  any  more  reasonable  for  workingmen  to 
refuse  under  any  circumstances  to  entertain  a  proposal 
for  reduced  wages;  or  for  increased  work  ;  and  denounc- 
ing the  selfishness  and  perfidy  of  their  employers,  with- 
out understanding  the  reason  of  their  action,  resolve  to 
effect  a  stoppage  of  work,  neither  doing  themselves,  nor 
allowing  others  to  do  in  their  places.  In  such  a  course 
there  would  be  more  of  despotism  and  injustice  than  in 
the  former.  The  men  would  virtually  proclaim  them- 
selves dictators,  and  for  the  gratification  of  their  pas- 
sions both  law  and  reason  must  be  trampled  under  foot. 
It  is  inevitable  that  disastrous  results  follow  upon 
such  a  course.  An  open  warfare  is  proclaimed  between 
forces  which  are  mutually  dependent,  and  between 
which  unbroken  harmony  should  prevail ;  and  when 
passion  is  aroused,  and  resistance  has  begun,  who  can 
arrest  the  overflowing  tide?  As  the  wise  man  said, 
"  The  beginning  of  strife  is  like  the  letting  out  of  water." 

VALUE  OF  ARBITRATION. 

Can  no  remedy  be  applied  for  the  evils  which  already 
exist  ?  Can  no  preventive  be  suggested  against  their 
recurrence  in  the  future  ?  This  is  undoubtedly  possible. 
It  may  be  found  without  difficulty  in  a  wise  system  of 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  35 

ARBITRATION.  The  parties  immediately  involved  in  a 
dispute  are  not,  upon prima  facie  grounds,  the  most  suit- 
able to  propose  terms  for  the  settlement  of  that  dispute. 
By  referring  it  to  a  third  party,  uninfluenced  by  preju- 
dice, able  to  dissect  it  in  all  its  hidden  fibres  and  out- 
ward facts,  and  resolved,  as  enthroned  upon  the  seat  of 
justice,  to  hold  the  balance  with  an  even  hand, — as 
Shakespeare  has  it,  "  nothing  to  extenuate,  or  set  aught 
down  in  malice," — the  difficulty  is  removed  at  once  from 
the  control  of  passion,  and  the  atmosphere  of  prejudice, 
and  must  receive  such  an  adjudication  as  the  principles 
involved  may  warrant,  and  as  the  public  interests  de- 
mand. 

What  practical  obstacle  can  be  started  ?  is  it  not 
feasible  ?  What  is  required  for  its  success  ?  does  it  need 
anything  more  than  a  recognition  of  mutual  privileges 
and  rights  ? — than  the  manifestation  of  a  spirit  of 
forbearance  and  toleration  ? — than  an  earnest  desire  to 
render  and  receive  privately  and  publicly  what  is  honor- 
able and  fair  ?  And  are  there  any  among  either  em- 
ployers or  employed  who  are  not  willing  to  admit  the 
validity  of  these  terms,  or  to  bind  themselves  by  them  ? 
Will  either  party  so  far  arrogate  the  possession  of  wis- 
dom and  justice  as  to  refuse  concession  to  the  other  ?  Is 
the  genius  of  patriotism  so  far  dethroned,  and  does 
the  fiend  of  selfishness  so  literally  reign  supreme,  that 
not  even  for  the  conservation  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
the  protection  of  life  and  home,  are  men  willing  to  sac. 
rifice  their  pride  and  prejudice,  and,  untrammelled  by  the 
prestige  of  their  order,  or  the  laws  of  their  union,  meet 
their  fellow-men  on  a  broad  and  open  ground  ?  And  are 
we  to  be  told  that  in  this  day  of  advanced  civilization, 
and  "  popular  Christianity," — when  so  many  millions  of 


dollars  are  expended  in  support  of  our  schools  and 
churches,  and  in  the  inculcation  of  virtue  and  truth,  it 
is  not  possible  to  find  a  number  of  men  who  will  dis- 
passionately and  impartially  arbitrate  between  any 
public  company  and  their  employers  ?  The  very  sugges- 
tion of  any  such  difficulty  implies  a  reflection  upon  the 
honor  of  the  nation.  It  is  not  true  that  there  is  an  un- 
willingness to  adopt  the  principle  of  arbitration  ;  or  that 
it  is  impossible  to  lay  down  a  satisfactory  basis  on  which 
arbitration  may  be  exercised. 

In  Great  Britain  the  feasibility  of  the  plan  has  been 
signally  demonstrated.  The  disputes  in  the  mining 
districts  of  the  North  of  England  have  been  settled  upon 
this  principle.  Even  the  shipbuilding  strike  on  the 
Clyde  of  Scotland,  after  a  duration  of  sixteen  weeks, 
and  the  endurance  of  untold  privations,  has  terminated 
by  the  application  of  this  law.  How  much  better  in 
each  case  had  arbitration  been  resorted  to  as  a  pre- 
ventive rather  than  as  a  cure  !  At  the  latest  moment, 
however,  a  recognition  of  the  principle  is  a  concession 
to  the  claims  of  reason  and  justice,  through  which  brute 
force  will  be  subordinated  to  intellectual  and  moral 
power. 

Shall  not  the  example  so  wisely  set  in  Britain  be 
followed  in  America  ?  Are  not  all  classes  among  us  as 
willing  to  conciliate  and  equalize  ?  as  the  old  Hebrew' 
prophet  said,  "to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy?"  It 
requires  but  a  beginning  ;  and  why  should  not  the 
operative  classes  take  the  lead  ?  Why,  in  the  matters 
which  are  still  in  dispute,  whether  on  the  railways  or  in 
the  coal  regions,  should  not  the  employees  approach 
their  masters  with  terms  of  conciliation  ?  And  why,  to 
prevent  a  recurrence  of  these  deplorable  misunderstand- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  37 

ings,  should  not  each  meet  the  other  half  way  with  an 
expressed  willingness  to  wipe  out  the  record  of  the 
past,  and  to  lay  down  for  themselves  a  method  of  amic- 
able adjustment  for  the  future  ?  A  generous  advance 
on  either  side  would  meet  with  a  cordial  response  on 
the  other.  Both  masters  and  men  are,  it  is  well  known, 
tired  of  the  dispute.  They  want  to  see  an  end  of  the 
difficulty.  There  is  a  deep,  irrepressible  yearning  for 
peace.  The  method  of  its  attainment  is  easy.  By 
adopting  the  principle  now  urged  a  blissful  calm  may  be 
ensured.  It  may  require  a  mutual  giving-way,  not  of 
principle,  but  of  feeling,  not  of  honor,  but  of  pride.  Do 
not  the  exigencies  of  the  country  demand  the  concession? 
and  in  view  of  the  momentous  interests  involved,  will 
not  you,  employers, — will  not  you,  workingmen,  crush 
within  you  the  lingering  elements  of  a  selfish  and  cruel 
antagonism,  and  from  the  wreck  of  the  late  disastrous 
struggle  evoke  a  fresh  the  spirit  of  amity  and  love  ? 

EVIL  HABITS  OF  WORKINGMEN. 

There  is  yet  another  theme  which  this  labor  crisis 
forces  into  view.  The  laboring  classes  must  be  just  to 
themselves,  and  to  their  families,  if  they  would  elicit 
general  sympathy,  and  if  they  would  fortify  themselves 
against  a  day  of  trial.  A  reformation  is  needed  in  many 
of  their  social  habits.  It  will  not  be  pretended  by  those 
who  know  them  best  that  they  are  always  and  scrupu- 
lously provident  in  their  ways.  Many  brilliant  excep- 
tions may  undoubtedly  be  found.  There  are  men  who 
work  steadily,  who  live  frugally,  who  save  carefully, 
and  who  strive  earnestly  to  elevate  their  order,  and  to 
enrich  their  land  with  the  blessings  of  virtue  no  less 


38  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

than  with  the  fruits  of  toil.  These  are  the  men  who 
discard  credit  at  the  stores,  who  eschew  intercourse  in 
the  saloons,  who  make  deposits  in  the  banks,  who  buy 
land  and  build  houses,  who  go  to  church  and  visit 
libraries,  whose  homes  are  the  abodes  of  comfort,  and 
whose  families  are  patterns  of  respectability. 

This  cannot,  unhappily,  be  said  of  all  the  working 
classes.  The  conduct  of  by  far  the  greater  proportion 
of  them  presents  a  darker  picture.  With  all  their  anx- 
iety to  get  money  they  are  recklessly  improvident  in 
its  expenditure.  They  do  not  know,  or  do  not  try  how 
to  make  the  most  of  small  wages,  or  the  best  of  adverse 
circumstances.  Their  idea  of  life  hardly  travels  beyond 
the  limit  of  the  passing  moment ;  or  their  conception 
of  pleasure  is  debased  to  the  lowest  level  of  sensual  in- 
dulgence. Hence  their  associations  are  vulgar,  and 
their  pursuits  are  grovelling  ;  and  hence,  too,  the  money 
they  often  earn  by  such  an  expenditure  of  strength,  and 
by  such  an  endurance  of  fatigue, — and  which  wisely  ex- 
pended would  secure  for  themselves  and  their  families 
at  least  a  plain,  substantial  fare, —  is  squandered  in 
drink,  in  tobacco,  and  in  other  questionable  gratifica- 
tions. 

One  of  the  first  results  of  such  an  insane  course  is 
to  run  into  debt ;  and  following  in  the  steps  of  this, 
there  come  poverty  and  discomfort.  Such  a  representa- 
tion is  not  a  libel  upon  the  working  classes.  There  are 
a  thousand  hideous  and  revolting  facts  to  demonstrate 
its  truth.  If  evidence  were  wanted  of  the  need  of  a 
social  reformation,  it  may  be  found  in  the  ragged  gar- 
ments, in  the  wretched  homes,  in  the  wasted  strength,  in 
the  premature  graves,  of  the  sons  of  toil,  and  of  their 
wives  and  children.  These  things  have  come  directly 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  39 

within  the  observation  of  the  writer.  He  has  had  to  do 
with  the  broken  health,  with  the  broken  hearts,  and 
with  the  broken  homes,  of  thousands  of  the  operative 
classes  ;  and  he  can  testify  to  the  social  vices,  and  to  the 
domestic  miseries,  and  to  the  personal  recriminations, 
which  are  poisoning  the  life-blood  of  the  nation,  which 
are  sapping  the  very  foundations  of  society,  and  which 
threaten  to  transform  the  land  into  a  pandemonium 
of  lust  and  woe,  over  whose  portals  may  be  inscribed 
the  awful  words  of  Dante — "  They  who  enter  here,  must 
leave  all  hope  behind  !  " 

And  why  has  there  been,  or  why  should  there  be, 
this  utter  abandonment  of  hope  and  virtue  ?  It  is  not 
because  there  has  been  a  lack  of  work,  or  a  lack  of 
money,  or  a  lack  of  strong  incentive  to  do  better  ;  it  is 
rather  because  the  masses  of  the  people  have  been 
swayed  by  corrupt  impulse,  and  lead  astray  by  evil  ex- 
ample, and  under  the  conjoint  influence  of  these  have 
been  drawn  insidiously  and  unconsciously  into  a  mode 
of  life  which  implies  a  perversion  of  the  noblest  facul- 
ties, and  which  must  inevitably  end  in  ruin  and  dis- 
grace. 

THE   REFORMATION    NEEDED. 

Now  any  change  in  the  condition  of  the  working 
classes  must  have  a  primary  relation  to  these  facts. 
There  will  be  little  practical  advantage,  either  to  work- 
ingmen  themselves,  or  to  their  families,  or  to  society, 
from  an  increase  of  wages,  unless  there  be  engendered 
the  disposition  and  the  power  to  make  a  better  use  of 
the  augmented  income.  The  workingmen  must  reform 
themselves.  It  should  be  their  aim  to  prove  themselves 


40  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

worthy  of,  no  less  than  entitled  to,  a  larger  remunera- 
tion for  the  services  they  render.  They  can  do  this  by 
,  living  with  more  economy  and  sobriety.  There  is  no 
need  of,  there  is  no  excuse  for,  so  much  drinking,  and 
smoking,  and  chewing,  and  sundry  other  evils  which  are 
inseparably  associated  with  these.  They  are  at  best 
wasteful,  if  not  disgusting.  It  is  quite  time  the  work- 
ingman  learnt  that  the  publican  is  not  his  truest  friend, 
and  that  the  indulgence  of  his  sensual  passions  neither 
adds  to  his  political  power,  nor  ensures  him  domestic 
comfort.  As  a  great  statesman  has  recently  put  it,  the 
home  is  the  "unit  of  civilization;"  and  whilst  for  the 
completeness  of  that  unit  wise  sanitary  regulations  are 
needed  to  begin  with,  as  he  urged,  it  is  no  less  impera- 
tive upon  the  occupants  of  that  home  to  infuse  into  it  a 
spirit  of  confidence  and  love,  and  to  diffuse  around  it  an 
air  of  calm  and  joy. 

It  is  the  province  of  the  workingmen — of  the  hus- 
bands, of  the  fathers,  of  the  sons,  of  the  brothers — of 
our  land  to  take  the  first  steps  in  the  fulfilment  of  this 
pure  and  elevated  mission,  by  the  manifestation  of 
tempers,  and  the  formation  of  habits,  and  the  pursuit 
of  pleasures  which  shall  be  at  once  virtuous  and  en- 
nobling. Their  wives,  and  mothers,  and  daughters,  and 
sisters,  will  soon  catch  the  holy  influence,  and  join  in  the 
humane  work.  The  change  will  be  as  beautiful  and 
sweet  as  spring-tide  flowers  after  the  winter  storm  ;  and 
in  the  homes  based  upon  such  principles,  and  regulated 
by  such  a  spirit,  there  will  be  found  the  surest  guaran- 
tee for  the  preservation  of  order  and  peace  against  any 
of  the  demoralizing  scenes  implied  in  a  riot,  or  strife. 

What  say  you,  workingmen  ?  Will  you  not  cultivate 
self-respect  ?  Will  you  not  aspire  to  independent  lives  ? 


THE  LABOR   PROBLEM.  4! 

Will  you  not  struggle  to  make  your  families  respected, 
and  your  homes  happy  ?  and  by  industry  and  intelli- 
gence, and  virtue,  will  you  not  leave  an  impress  upon 
your  age  more  durable  than  tablets  of  brass  or  monu- 
ments of  stone  ? 

PROVINCE   OF   THE    GOVERNMENT. 

It  is  impossible  to  close  this  paper  without  a  reference 
to  the  position  and  duty  of  the  Government  in  this 
crisis.  The  policy  of  the  Government,  indeed,  may  in 
no  small  measure  determine  the  issue  of  the  crisis.  Is 
it  fair  to  charge  upon  the  Government  any  responsi- 
bility, direct  or  indirect,  for  the  scenes  which  have  al- 
ready been  enacted  ?  May  these  scenes  be  traced 
through  any  remote  cause,  or  by  any  occult  influence, 
to  an  improper  legislation,  or  to  a  feeble  executive  ? 
Or,  are  they,  through  the  imperceptible  but  certain 
operation  of  natural  laws,  the  necessary  consequence, 
the  inevitable  product  of  the  principles  enunciated,  and 
of  the  tactics  employed,  during  the  late  Presidential 
contest  ?  In  view  of  many  of  the  deplorable  facts 
which  have  been  brought  to  light  within  the  last  two  or 
three  years,  implicating  the  integrity  of  some  of  the 
most  prominent  men  in  the  nation  ;  and  in  view  of  the 
outrageous  assaults  upon  personal  honor,  and  the  wan- 
ton sacrifice  of  national  prestige,  for  the  gratification  of 
party  malice  and  revenge,  and  for  the  attainment  of 
only  political  ends,  is  it  much  to  be  wondered  at  that  in 
the  rebound  of  these  things  the  reins  of  authority  have 
been  relaxed,  and  the  passions  of  the  mob  stirred  up 
beyond  license  and  control  ? 


42  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

There  may  be  no  practical  utility  at  present  in  the 
discussion  of  such  a  question,  notwithstanding  it  touches 
the  secret  spring,  the  hidden  motives,  of  much  of  the 
phenomena  with  which  we  are  now  confronted.  The 
more  immediately  important  question  is  whether  the 
Government  in  the  exercise  of  its  legitimate  functions 
can  allay  the  prevailing  agitation,  and  prevent  a  re- 
currence of  the  evil  ?  in  other  words,  whether  it  can 
devise  any  method  by  which  without  the  contravention 
of  individual  liberty,  or  public  safety,  all  unseemly  con- 
flict between  capital  and  labor  can  be  avoided,  and  the 
claims  and  rights  of  employers  and  employed  be  har- 
monized ?  This  is  doubtless  one  of  the  highest  ends  of 
Government,  since  in  this  are  involved  the  contentment 
and  prosperity  of  all  classes  of  the  community. 

IMPARTIALITY   OF  THE   GOVERNMENT. 

It  is  the  special  characteristic  of  our  Government 
that  it  not  only  exists  for  the  people,  but  that  it  derives 
its  existence  from  the  people.  The  purest  models  of 
antiquity  have  suggested  its  character  and  form.  Its 
theory  is  perfect.  In  beautiful  harmony  it  blends  the 
magisterial  and  the  paternal ;  and  whilst  springing  from 
the  people,  and  therefore  amenable  to  the  people,  it  is  as 
much  its  prerogative  to  provide  for  their  wants,  as  to 
punish  for  their  crimes.  That  Government  will  realize 
in  the  fullest  sense  the  prime  idea  of  its  being  which 
promotes  by  wise  legislation  the  order  and  comfort  of 
the  people,  and  which  secures  by  a  proper  exercise  of 
authority  protection  to  both  property  and  life. 

In  this  respect  there  is,  and  can  be  no  distinction  of 
classes  and  persons.  The  poor  equally  with  the  rich 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  43 

are  the  objects  of  good  government ;  the  private  in- 
dividual no  less  than  the  public  company  is  entitled  to 
its  supervision ,  and  as  the  history  of  the  world  amply 
demonstrates,  those  periods  have  been  most  signalized 
by  industry  and  progress,  and  those  nations  have  been 
most  fruitful  in  the  blessings  of  civilization  and  peace, 
in  which  the  administration  has  been  based  upon  prin- 
ciples of  liberty  and  justice,  and  in  which  the  social 
necessities  of  the  people  have  been  provided  for  as  well 
as  their  strictly  political  interests  considered.  Between 
the  two,  indeed,  it  is  difficult  to  draw  any  broad  line  of 
distinction,  since  the  purely  social  becomes  the  basis  of 
what  is  technically  called  political ;  whereas  in  popular 
usage  political  claims  are  nothing  more  or  less  than  the 
promotion  of  selfish  party  ends  at  the  expense  of  the 
public  good. 

INFLUENCE   OF   THE   GOVERNMENT. 

It  might  be  more  than  history  would  justify  for  even 
flattery  to  affirm  that  the  Government  of  the  United 
States  has  always  realized  its  own  ideal,  or  successfully 
accomplished  all  the  purposes  of  its  founders.  That  it 
has  exerted  a  potent  influence  upon  the  human  race, 
and  that  it  has  achieved  a  wondrous  success  in  the  de- 
velopment of  sound  principles,  and  in  the  establishment 
of  useful  institutions,  the  merest  reference  to  the  history 
of  the  last  hundred  years  would  sufficiently  show.  It  is 
not  an  empty  boast  that  within  that  period  its  history  is 
unsurpassed  in  the  record  of  nations.  From  an  area  of 
about  800,000  square  miles  the  country  has  grown  into 
the  possession  of  territory  measuring  at  least  3,603,800 
square  miles.  From  a  population  of  only  2,756,044 


44  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

there  has  been  an   enormous  growth  to  44,675,000.     At 
the  commencement  of  the   century   mining  operations 
were   nil,   and   canals,   railways,   and   telegraphs    were 
unknown ;    whereas    now    our     mines     yield    at    least 
$1,000,000,090,  our  canals  extend  to   more  than   10,000 
miles,  our  railways  thread  the  country  to  the  extent  of 
74,658  miles,    whilst   our  telegraph   wires   stretch  over 
80,000  miles  and  annually  wing  through  the  country  14, 
ooo-,ooo  messages.    From  about  $20,000,000  our  manufac- 
tures have  reached  an  annual  value  of  $4,200,000,000, 
whilst   the  foreign  commerce   of   the   country  has  ex- 
panded to  an  average  of  $700,000,000.   Where  there  were 
no  banks  there  are  now  about  6,000,  with  an   aggregate 
capital    of  $500,000,000.      In    place  of  9    there   are  500 
colleges,  with  a  public    school    organization    which  is 
worked  at  an  annual  cost  of  $75,000,000.    There  are  65, 
ooo  churches  with  sitting  accommodations  for  25,000,000 
persons,  and  with  property  to  the  value  of  $400,000,000. 
There  were  46  printing  presses  at  the  commencement  of 
the  century  ;  their  number  is  now  legion ;  whilst  by  their 
prodigious  power  at  least  1,600,000,000  newspapers  and 
periodicals  are  annually  issued  for   circulation.      The 
public  libraries   of  the   country  reach   the  astonishing 
number  of    165,000,  whilst  in  these  there  are  not  less 
than  50,000,000  volumes. 

Are  not  such  figures  almost  fabulous  ?  do  they  not 
illustrate  equally  the  resources  of  the  country,  and  the 
energy  of  the  people  ?  Is  it  possible  that  such  extra- 
ordinary progress  could  have  been  made  without  the 
action  of  a  wise  and  beneficent  Government  ?  and  with 
such  changes  in  its  favor  what  nation  is  more  entitled  to 
admiration  ?  or  what  people  are  more  fitted  to  exercise 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  45 

a  commanding  influence  in  the  advancing  civilization 
•of  the  world  ? 

CONDITIONS   OF  NATIONAL  SUCCESS. 

But  with  nations  as  with  individuals  there  is  re- 
quired the  observance  of  certain  laws.  The  attainment 
or  the  continuance  of  success,  even  in  a  material  sense, 
is  dependent  in  a  large  degree  on  political  and  moral 
rectitude.  It  is  righteousness  that  establishes  a  nation  ; 
or  as  another  inspired  authority  has  it,  wisdom  and 
knowledge  must  be  the  stability  of  the  times.  A  cor- 
rupt government  in  its  very  nature  will  engender  public 
demoralization  ;  and  as  the  inevitable  result  of  licentious- 
ness and  fraud,  whether  among  governors  or  governed, 
there  will  be  disintegration  and  decay.  All  the  an- 
alogies of  nature  suggest  this  ;  all  the  examples  of 
history  confirm  it.  In  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire  there  was  first  the  insidious  operation  of 
avarice  and  lust,  of  ambition  and  revenge.  Equally  so 
the  degradation  of  Spain  in  the  nineteenth,  as  contrasted 
with  its  glory  in  the  sixteenth  century,  illustrates  the 
effects  of  bad  government  and  defective  morality. 

CAUSES    FOR   APPREHENSION. 

It  would  be  hazardous  to  affirm  that  in  the  United 
States  a  period  of  retrogression  and  decay  has  set  in. 
The  future  may  be  more  brilliant  than  the  past  in  all  the 
essential  elements  of  prosperity.  But  notwithstanding 
this  there  are  very  grave  causes  of  apprehension.  The 
present  social  condition  of  the  country  is  not  indicative 
of  repose  or  progress.  In  the  very  agitation  which  has 
distracted  the  public  mind  there  are  symptoms  of  a  dis- 


46  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

order  which  may  yet  break  upon  us  in  overwhelming  fury. 
It  is  not,  however,  as  some  foreign  critics  are  pleased  to 
say,  the  natural  effect  of  the  system  we  have  adopted,  by 
which  a  proper  equilibrium  of  power  is  destroyed,  and 
through  which  popular  passion  is  allowed  to  usurp  the 
functions  of  legislative  government.  The  system  is 
essentially  sound.  Any  defect  chargeable  upon  it  is  in 
practical  development  rather  than  in  abstract  principles 
and  laws.  As  exemplified  by  the  founders  of  the  Con- 
stitution,— in  the  hands  of  such  men  as  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Adams,  Lincoln,  and  their  illustrious  col- 
leagues,— the  Government  adapted  itself  to  every  emer- 
gency, and  proved  sufficient  for  every  crisis ;  and  whilst 
conserving  liberty  and  order  it  promoted  industry  and 
wealth. 

There  has  been  unquestionably  a  falling  off  in  the 
character  of  our  public  men  during  the  last  twenty 
years.  The  occupants  of  some  of  the  highest  offices  in 
the  nation  have  been  men  of  incompetency  and  corrup- 
tion. As  one  inevitable  result  utter  feebleness  has 
characterized  the  administration  of  the  law,  whilst  in  the 
method  of  transacting  public  business  there  has  been 
a  melancholy  departure  from  the  principles  and  ex- 
amples of  our  forefathers.  Personal  emolument  has 
taken  the  place  of  patriotic  zeal ;  intrigues  for  private 
gain  have  led  to  a  sacrifice  of  public  virtue ;  and  painful 
as  the  fact  is,  it  is  nevertheless  true,  that  during  the 
centennial  period  of  our  history,  there  were  exhibited 
scenes  of  treachery  and  fraud  which  scarcely  find  their 
parallel  in  the  blackest  forms  of  Roman  corruption, 
or  in  the  boldest  bribery  which  stained  the  fair  fame  of 
Britain  a  century  ago. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  47 

It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  these  things  have  had 
a  demoralizing  influence  upon  the  public  mind.  They 
have  relaxed  the  reins  of  power  ;  they  have  weakened 
the  restraints  of  law ;  they  have  ignored  the  claims  of 
virtue ;  they  have  frustrated  the  very  ends  of  justice  ; 
and  by  their  spirit,  and  tendency,  and  influence,  they 
have  prepared  the  way  for  the  crisis  through  which  we 
are  passing,  and  have  rendered  imminent  the  very  con- 
vulsion which  our  critics  predicate  will  yet  rend  the 
Republic  in  sunder. 

DIRECT  CAUSES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  DISQUIET. 

It  must,  however,  be  allowed  that  a  series  of  sub- 
sidiary causes  have  been  in  constant  operation.  The 
war  of  the  rebellion  destroyed  the  amity  and  impover- 
ished the  resources  of  many  of  the  States.  An  enormous 
debt  was  hung  like  a  millstone  round  the  neck  of  the 
Union.  Without  prudently  looking  into  the  future,  or 
calmly  calculating  the  cost,  capitalists  and  merchants 
recklessly  rushed  into  speculation,  in  the  purchase  of 
land,  in  the  building  of  houses,  in  the  manufacture  of 
goods,  in  the  extension  of  railways,  &c.  By  immigration 
from  foreign  countries  an  unproductive  population  was 
rapidly  augmented.  The  market  became  stocked  with 
unsaleable  goods.  In  the  frenzy  of  the  hour  large  ad- 
ditions were  made  to  Federal,  State,  and  municipal  debts. 
By  restrictive  regulations  the  arms  of  business  became 
paralysed  ;  by  excessive  taxation  the  income  of  the 
people  was  crippled  ;  and  gradually,  like  a  gaunt  de- 
vouring, unappeasable  giant,  stagnation  appeared 
amongst  us  ;  and  our  manufactures  were  reduced,  and 
our  foreign  trade  was  checked,  and  many  of  our  bonds 


48  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

were  depreciated  in  the  market,  and  much  of  our  money 
became  locked  up  in  the  banks,  and  some  of  our  oldest 
houses  began  to  totter,  and  thousands  of  our  operatives 
sat  down  in  gloomy  despondency,  and  from  the  heart  of 
the  nation  there  went  up  to  heaven  an  agonizing  cry 
for  labor  and  bread. 

PREROGATIVE  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

It  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Government  to  meet  the 
evil  boldly ;  and  whatever  defect  may  be  inherent  in  the 
Government,  or  may  attach  to  its  practical  administra- 
tion, it  has  without  doubt  the  power  to  mitigate,  if  not 
remove  entirely,  the  evils  complained  of,  or,  at  least,  to 
lay  the  foundation  by  prudent  legislation  for  returning 
prosperity  to  the  country.  To  say  that  this  is  impractic- 
able, or  that  any  such  effort  does  not  legitimately  fall 
within  the  province  of  the  Government,  is  virtually  to 
plead  that  the  Government  has  abdicated  its  functions, 
and  that  with  all  the  expenses  incident  to  its  existence, 
it  is  for  practical  purposes  a  nullity  and  a  bugbear. 
The  most  complicated  cases  of  private  wrong,  or  of 
public  disorder,  fall  under  its  jurisdiction,  since  every 
citizen  is  amenable  to  it,  and  asks  protection  from  it ; 
and  in  the  exercise  of  its  functions  it  may  and  should 
harmonize  the  highest  claims  of  individual  liberty  with 
the  sternest  demands  of  national  justice. 

This  by  no  means  implies  a  power  of  needless  inter- 
ference in  the  personal  or  family  relations,  or  in  the 
business  enterprises,  or  in  the  capital  and  property 
possessions  of  the  community.  It  is  competent  for  the 
Government  to  enact  certain  laws  by  which  residence 
within  its  bounds  shall  be  regulated,  or  in  conformity 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  49 

with  which  business  relations  may  be  carried  on.  But 
none  of  these  can  infringe  the  inherent  rights  of  hu- 
manity, as  established  and  revealed  by  the  Creator,  and 
as  recognized  among  all  civilized  nations.  It  is  rather 
to  ensure  the  proper  exercise  and  development  of  these 
that  Government  is  organized,  in  obedience  to  and  as 
representative  of  the  will  of  the  Universal  Lawgiver ; 
and  when  in  any  instance  the  assertion  of  legislative 
authority,  or  executive  power,  clashes  with  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  society  is  constituted,  a 
wrong  is  enacted,  and  mischief  will  follow. 

LIBERTY   AND    PROPERTY    MUST   BE 
PROTECTED. 

On  this  principle  the  Government  has  no  power  to 
interfere  with  the  possession  of  private  property,  except 
for  the  satisfaction  of  the  law,  and  the  protection  of  the 
public  interests,  when  a  fraud  has  been  perpetrated,  or 
a  high  crime  committed.  It  cannot  require  a  laborer  to 
surrender  his  household  effects,  or  any  one  single 
article  from  among  them,  to  form  part  of  a  national 
stock,  any  more  than  it  can  demand  of  the  banker  that  he 
throw  open  the  vaults  where  his  specie  is  secured,  or  the 
capitalist  that  he  resign  unconditionally  the  title-deeds  of 
his  real  estate,  whether  in  land  or  buildings.  In  each  case 
there  is  the  inalienable  right  of  possession.  A  chair,  or 
a  dollar,  or  a  house,  honestly  acquired,  is  as  much  the 
personal  property  of  the  individual  who  owns  it  as 
either  his  hands'  or  his  feet  ;  and  so  long  as  he  acts  in 
conformity  with  the  law  of  the  country  in  which  he  was 
born,  or  in  which  he  has  become  naturalized,  no  power 
in  that  country  can  justly  deprive  him  of  the  one,  any 


5©  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

more  than  of  the  other.  If  a  citizen  of  his  own  accord 
chooses  to  surrender  the  whole  or  a  part  of  his  personal 
property  for  the  public  good,  the  Government  is  author- 
ized to  accept  the  gift,  and  to  apply  it  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  the  donor.  Or,  if  any  number  of 
individuals,  for  the  gratification  of  any  peculiar  whim, 
or  for  the  experimental  developement  of  any  particular 
principle  in  social  economy,  unitedly  and  voluntarily 
agree  to  throw  all  their  possessions  into  a  common  fund, 
and  abolishing  all  distinctions  of  rich  and  poor,  each 
work  on  the  same  footing,  and  all  be  rewarded  with  the 
same  terms,  the  Government  has  no  right  of  intervention, 
so  long  as  its  taxes  are  paid,  and  both  the  civil  and 
moral  laws  are  observed. 

In  such  cases,  however,  there  is  nothing  analogous 
to  the  Communistic  theory,  which  requires  a  general 
levelling,  and  regardless  of  all  other  considerations,  as 
well  physical  as  moral,  a  uniformity  of  income.  There 
is,  indeed,  between  them  the  widest  possible  difference, 
since  the  one  act  would  be  voluntary,  whilst  the  other 
would  imply  violence.  Without  perfect  unanimity  of  sen- 
timent, and,  resulting  from  that,  a  general  concert  of 
action,  no  attempt  even  could  be  made  to  practise  a 
Communistic  system.  In  the  nature  of  things,  and  ac- 
cording to  the  very  laws  which  govern  the  universe,  such 
oneness  of  mind  and  habit  is  impossible.  It  must  spring 
up  spontaneonsly  not  be  produced  by  coercive  measures  ; 
and  were  the  Government  to  interfere  to  compel  any  in- 
dividual against  his  will  to  surrender  his  property,  and  to 
conform  to  a  dull,  unbroken  uniformity  of  work  and 
wages,  it  would  simply  exceed  its  own  functions,  and 
would  strike  a  fatal  blow  at  its  own  existence,  and  at  the 
order  of  society,  it  is  created  to  conserve. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  51 

There  is  no  more  possibility  of  success  now  than 
there  was  in  the  days  of  Wat  Tyler  and  Jack  Cade  in 
England  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  or 
than  during  the  French  Revolution  of  1789,  which 
literally  paved  the  way  for  a  military  despotism.  Yea, 
more  than  this,  there  is  less  reason  now,  and  especially 
in  America,  for  any  Communistic  organization  than  in 
the  periods  thus  mentioned.  More  social  equality  pre- 
vails ;  more  political  power  is  enjoyed  ;  and  should  the 
Government  entertain  in  the  slightest  degree  the  wild, 
illogical,  and  irrational  propositions  of  a  few  crazy 
theorising  demagogues,  or  of  any  body  of  selfish,  sen- 
sual, indolent,  merciless  "  roughs,"  who  might  demand, 
by  the  aid  of  fire  and  plunder,  equality  of  station,  and 
equality  of  goods,  it  would  prove  itself  unworthy  of 
confidence  and  respect,  and  should  give  place  to 
"  honester  men  " — as  old  Cromwell  put  it.  There  is  no 
danger  that  such  a  catastrophe  will  befall  the  nation. 
The  very  mention  of  Communism  is  sufficient  to  excite 
terror,  and  to  ensure  its  condemnation. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  CANNOT  BECOME  A 
TRADE  CORPORATION. 

Nor  is  it  any  more  clear  that  the  Government  can 
interpose  by  any  direct  influence  to  regulate  the  ques- 
tion of  labor  and  wages  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed. It  is  utterly  inadmissible  that  the  Government 
can  become  a  labor  corporation,  undertaking  to  run 
the  railways,  or  to  work  the  mines,  or  to  manufacture 
any  of  the  various  kinds  of  goods  which  may  be  in  de- 
mand in  the  market,  or  which  may  find  employment  for 
the  people.  f!\ny  such  proposition  is  based  upon  a  pure 


52  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

misapprehension  of  the  primary  functions  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. The  very  first  attempt  to  give  it  practical 
effect  would  bring  the  Government  into  collision  with 
corporate  bodies  and  private  tradesmen.  Their  rights 
would  be  infringed.  If  the  Government  should  start  as 
a  trader  in  one  department,  it  must  begin  business  in  all  ; 
or,  somewhere  an  inequality  would  exist,  or  an  unfair 
advantage  would  be  taken  ;  and  should  the  Government 
succeed  in  establishing  a  great  commercial  monopoly, 
from  whose  prices  no  deviation  could  be  made,  and  by 
whose  laws  all  industrial  interests  must  be  governed, 
where  would  be  the  liberty  of  individual  action?  and 
where  the  stimulus  to  public  enterprise  ? 

As  a  matter  of  economy  it  is  doubtful  whether  the 
Government  could  work  to  the  same  advantage  as  a 
properly  organized  company,  or  a  single  energetic  trades- 
man ;  and,  therefore,  independently  of  the  enormous 
appropriations  which  would  be  required  to  buy  up  all  the 
railways,  and  other  business  of  the  country,  it  is  morally 
certain  that  the  revenue  would  be  disproportionate  to 
the  expenditure,  and  that  national  bankruptcy  would 
ensue.  But  apart  altogether  from  that, — which  is  men- 
tioned only  as  a  side  issue, — the  essential  point  of  the 
argument  is,  that  the  Government  cannot  undertake  any 
trade  relation  without  sacrificing  its  proper  character; 
and  infringing  the  liberty  of  some  portion  of  its  subjects. 

CONDITIONS  ON  WHICH  PUBLIC  CHARTERS 
MAY  BE  GRANTED. 

It  is  'doubtless  a  fair  question  to  raise  whether  in 
granting  a  charter  to  any  business  corporation  the  Gov- 
ernment is  not  authorised  to  make  such  stipulations  as 


,THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  53 

it  may  deem  necessary  for  the  due  transaction  of  the 
business  concerned,  and  for  the  safety  health,  and  com- 
fort of  those  who  may  be  employed.  This  does  come 
naturally  and  properly  within  its  sphere,  since  the 
very  existence  of  the  business  is  primarily  dependent 
upon  its  permission  and  sanction  ;  and  since  it  has  no 
right  to  sanction  an  undertaking  upon  conditions  which 
may  prove  inimical  to  the  public  good. 

Thus,  if  a  railway  company  apply  for  the  charter  of 
a  new  line,  and  if  with  that  there  be  sought  the  additional 
privilege  of  a  land  or  money  grant  to  aid  in  the  con- 
struction of  the  line,  the  Government  would  not  only  be 
empowered,  but  perfectly  justified,  in  demanding,  not 
only  that  the  line  should  be  of  a  certain  gauge,  or  that 
the  carriages  should  be  built  upon  an  approved  model, 
but  also  that  the  employees  should  not  be  required  to 
work  more  than  a  stipulated  number  of  hours,  and  only 
upon  clearly  defined  terms.  This  might  be  necessary  to 
balance  the  trade  forces  which  are  to  be  brought  into 
operation,  and  to  render  the  whole  subservient  to  the 
public  good,  since  without  such  stipulations  the  strong 
might  take  advantage  of  the  weak,  or  the  rich  impose 
upon  the  poor.  But  when  the  Government  has  thus 
laid  down  the  law  it  can  hardly  interfere  further,  except 
in  cases  where  the  charter  is  violated,  or  wherein 
some  other  portion  of  the  civil  code  is  contravened. 
Within  the  limits  of  that  charter  the  company  and  their 
employees  have  the  undoubted  right  to  make  any  sub- 
sidiary arrangements  which  they  may  think  advisable 
for  the  success  of  the  enterprise,  and  which  are  .mutu- 
ally satisfactory. 


54  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

VALIDITY  AND  OBLIGATION  OF  TRADE 
CONTRACTS. 

The  same  is  true  of  any  other  public  company  or 
mercantile  firm.  In  every  business  organization  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  liberty  is  necessary,  and  that  in  the 
nature  of  things  implies  power.  Each  party  to  the  en- 
gagement supplies  a  distinct  kind  of  capital,  valued  in 
the  market,  not  by  an  arbitary  law  of  proportion,  or  a 
uniform  standard  of  weight  and  measure,  but  by  the 
varying  usages  of  society  which  regulate  the  supply  and 
the  demand,  and  through  which  money  capital  is  some- 
times rendered  unproductive,  and  labor  capital  is  only 
partially  required.  It  is,  therefore,  competent  to  each  to 
make  the  best  bargain  he  can,  so  long  as  a  due  regard  is 
had  to  the  other  primary  and  fundamental  conditions 
which  are  assumed.  The  Government  cannot  step  in 
and  say  that  employers  shall  not  pay  more  than  a 
certain  ratio  of  wages,  or  that  employees  shall  not  re- 
ceive less  than  a  certain  sum.  Nor  is  there,  indeed,  any 
power  to  compel  the  masters  to  make  an  equal  division 
of  their  profits  among  the  men,  any  more  than  the  law 
can  require  the  employees  to  work  for  nothing,  because 
under  some  circumstances  the  business  may  be  carried 
on  at  a  loss. 

The  whole  thing  resolves  itself  into  a  mutual  agree- 
ment. It  is  of  the  essence  of  such  an  agreement  that; 
each  party  should  be  willing  to  give  and  take.  On  one 
side,  at  least,  an  immense  risk  is  incurred ;  but  that, 
again,  is  counterbalanced  by  the  prospect  of  great  gain. 
On  the  other  a  positive  and  regular  income  is  insured, 
on  condition  that  a  prescribed  course  of  duty  be  per- 
formed. When  rightly  balanced  the  two  forces  thus 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  55 

employed,  so  far  from  proving  antagonistic  to  each 
other,  are  mutually  serviceable  and  dependent.  Each 
advances  the  interests  of  the  other,  and  through  the  two 
combined  the  convenience  of  society,  and  the  growth  of 
the  nation  are  secured.  Neither  has  power  over  the 
other,  except  for  the  service  he  has  stipulated  to  render. 
To  that  extent  each  is  responsible  to  the  other  ;  and 
here  the  natural  prerogative  of  the  Government  comes 
into  play,  in  requiring  from  each  a  fulfilment  of  the  con- 
tract, and  in  enforcing  justice  between  man  and  man. 

Beyond  a  certain  limit  the  Government  cannot  in- 
terfere with  the  formation  of  the  contract.  That  must 
be  left  to  the  option  of  the  parties  primarily  concerned, 
and  must  depend  upon  the  nature  of  the  circumstances 
in  which  they  are  respectively  placed.  But  when  the 
contract  has  been  made,  and  when  upon  the  strength  of 
that  work  has  been  begun,  each  party  has  the  right  of 
protection  in  his  person,  his  property,  his  work,  and  his 
reward  ;  and  it  is  in  affording  such  protection,  with  all 
the  security  and  stimulus  it  necessarily  involves,  that 
one  of  the  highest  functions  of  the  Government  is  per- 
formed. Should  the  contract  be  broken,  no  matter  by 
which  party,  the  other  has  redress  through  a  judicial 
process  ;  and  if  whilst  at  work,  or  as  the  result  of  work, 
there  be  danger  of  assault,  then  even  the  military  arm  is, 
or  may  be  stretched  out  in  defence. 

Is  more  needed  ?  Can  the  Government  consistently 
attempt  more  ?  There  is  liberty  of  action,  yet  security 
of  possession ;  the  power  of  individual  choice,  yet 
amenability  to  a  general  law ;  and  in  such  a  state  is 
there  not,  at  least,  an  approximation  to  the  bright  ideal  of 
which  Plato  dreamed,  and  Cicero  declaimed  ?  If  dis- 
putes should  afterwards  arise  in  the  practical  arrange- 


56  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

ment  of  business  matters — if,  on  the  one  hand,  employ- 
ers should  wish  to  reduce  the  wages  of  their  men,  be- 
cause of  a  slackness  of  trade ;  or,  if  on  the  other, 
employees  should  desire  an  advance  of  wages,  through 
the  briskness  of  trade,  and  on  either  ground  there  be  a 
danger  of  collision,  then  in  that  as  a  mere  difference  of 
opinion,  or  conflict  of  rival  claims,  the  Government  has 
no  legal  right  to  interfere. 

ARBITRATION  PROPOSED  BY  GOVERNMENT. 

But  here  the  question  again  arises  whether  such 
differences  may  not  be  amicably  settled  by  mutual  ex- 
planation through  the  intervention  of  a  third  party ;  or 
whether  each  party  could  not  be  induced  to  refer  the 
whole  question  in  dispute  to  the  judgment  of  a  disin- 
terested and  impartial  board  of  arbitrators,  whose  de- 
cision should  be  accepted  as  final  ?  If  the  possibility  of 
such  a  method  be  admitted,  could  not  the  Government 
talce  the  initiatory  step  in  proposing  a  national  board  of 
arbitrators,  or  in  suggesting  the  general  principles  on 
which  such  a  board  may  be  established  ?  What  higher 
function  can  the  Government  perform  than  to  mediate 
between  contending  parties,  and  by  securing  satisfaction 
for  each  prevent  the  possibility  of  the  disturbance  of  the 
public  peace,  or  an  interruption  of  the  course  of  trade  ? 

It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  both  employers  and 
employed  are  accessible  to  reason — open  to  conviction- 
anxious  to  obtain  only  what  is  right.  In  numerous  in- 
stances the  benefits  of  arbitration  have  been  realized; 
and  so  simple  and  honorable  has  the  method  proved  that 
the  parties  engaged  in  the  dispute  have  afterwards  been 
amazed  at  their  own  stupidity  in  not  resorting  to  the 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  57 

plan  sooner.  The  adoption  of  this  expedient  might  have 
prevented  altogether,  or  very  materially  have  modified 
the  recent  troubles.  What  is  neededjs  a  rule,  mutually 
acceptable,  and  applicable  to  all  cases,  by  which  any 
trade  dispute  shall  be  referred  on  certain  clearly  de- 
fined principles  to  arbitration.  The  Government  can- 
not require  this  by  proclamation;  Congress  cannot  en- 
force this  by  the  enaction  of  a  new  law.  In  either  case 
there  would  be  an  infringement  of  liberty,  and  an  un- 
warrantable interference  with  the  mutual  relations  of 
masters  and  men.  But  both  Government  and  Congress 
can  recommend  an  arrangement  ;  both  Government  and 
Congress  can  develope  a  plan  by  which  it  may  be  car- 
ried out  ;  and  both  Government  and  Congress  can  take 
the  initiatory  steps  for  securing  a  general  acquiescence. 
In  doing  this  the  Government  will  conserve  its  dignity 
and  power,  and  will  render  a  service  to  the  nation  and 
the  age  far  more  useful  than  the  most  brilliant  victory 
upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  by  which  its  name  and  in- 
fluence will  be  indelibly  impressed  upon  the  hearts  of 
the  people. 


FISCAL    REGULATIONS:    SPECIE    PAYMENT: 
TARIFF   REVISION,   &c. 

There  are  other  matters,  however,  upon  which  the 
Government  can  take  immediate  and  direct  action  ;  and 
some  of  which  bear  upon  the  laws  which  afifect  the  gen- 
eral relations  of  trade  and  finance  in  the  country.  In 
this  connection  are  to  be  noticed,  first,  the  resumption  of 
specie  payment,  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress;  second, 
the  adoption  of  a  single  monetary  standard,  the  formation 


58  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

of  that  upon  a  gold  basis,  and  the  consequent  rejection 
of  any  and  every  plan  for  the  remonetization  of  silver  ; 
and  third,  a  careful*  and  liberal  revision  of  the  tariff,  so  that 
the  oppressive  duties  now  imposed  upon  foreign  com- 
merce might  be  reduced,  and  the  way  gradually  prepared 
for  the  opening  up  of  reciprocal  trade  relations  with 
Canada,  and  with  foreign  countries  generally. 

These  are  questions  which  involve  the  speedy  and 
safe  return  of  commercial  prosperity.  The  Govern- 
ment cannot  afford  to  trifle  with  them.  Its  consistency 
and  honor,  if  not  its  very  existence  and  power,  are  in- 
volved in  them.  In  a  subsequent  treatise,  or  in  a  series  of 
papers,  it  is  proposed  to  discuss  these  questions  in  full, 
showing  the  basis  on  which  they  rest,  the  principles  they 
involve,  the  effects  which  may  be  anticipated  from  their 
early  settlement,  and  the  means  by  which  such  settle- 
ment- may  be  brought  about.  Among  the  working 
classes,  and  among  politicians  too,  there  is  too  much 
mystification  on  these  matters ;  and  it  does  seem  desir- 
able to  sweep  away  the  cobwebs  in  which  some  very 
simple  facts  have  become  entangled,  and  to  break  down 
the  fallacies  by  which  certain  writers  and  speakers  are 
attempting  to  bolster  up  or  revive  an  unsound,  and, 
therefore,  a  dangerous  financial  policy.  The  writer  pro- 
poses to  attempt  this,  and  thus  to  supplement  the  present 
appeal  by  a  few  other  arguments  and  facts  which  the 
people  need,  and  which  may  contribute  something  to- 
wards the  settlement  of  these  questions. 

In  the  meantime  the  Government  is  under  a  weighty 
responsibility  for  the  enforcement  of  the  Resumption 
Act  at  the  time  specified,  and  for  the  preliminary  steps 
towards  a  revision  of  the  tariff.  Both  are  needed  ;  for 
both  the  people  look  to  the  Government  ;  and  from 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  59 

both  the  happiest  effects  may  be  expected  to  spring.  A 
degree  of  public  confidence  would  be  restored  which 
has  long  been  wanting  in  the  business  of  the  nation  ; 
an  incubus  would  be  removed  which  has  clogged  the 
wheels  and  blocked  up  the  highway  of  trade ;  and  an 
elasticity  and  vigor  would  be  infused  into  all  depart- 
ments of  commerce  which  would  quicken  the  national 
pulse,  which  would  put  into  circulation  millions  of 
dollars  of  idle  capital,  and  which  would  find  employ- 
ment for  thousands  of  our  now  half-famished  laborers 
and  mechanics.  With  the  adoption  of  such  a  policy 
bright  and  halcyon  days  would  return  ;  and  following 
in  their  train  would  be  contentment,  order,  and  joy, —  a 
peaceful  nation  and  happy  homes.  At  the  present  mo- 
ment almost  every  circumstance  is  favorable  for  the 
action  of  the  Government  in  this  direction.  A  super- 
abundant harvest  is  changing  the  whole  commercial 
aspect  of  the  nation,  and  is  preparing  the  way  for  the 
long-desired  and  expected  revival  of  trade.  The  heavens 
are  bright  with  promise,  the  fields  have  been  rich  with 
fruit ;  and  the  Government  has  only  to  read  wisely  the 
"signs  of  the  times,"  and  to  act  boldly  in  co-operation 
with  Providenc  itself,  to  remove  every  ground  of  dis- 
quietude and  complaint,  and  to  secure  for  the  country 
a  measure  of  prosperity  unequalled  in  its  own  history, 
and  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any  other  nation. 

NECESSITIES    OF   THE   UNEMPLOYED. 

In  anticipation  of  this  consummation,  however,  the 
Government  has  yet  to  consider  whether  it  can  adopt 
any  effectual  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  thousands 
throughout  the  country  who  are  now  destitute  of  em- 


60  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

ployment,  and  in  want  of  the  ordinary  provisions  of 
life.  The  fact  is  indisputable  that  there  are  multitudes 
of  such  amongst  us.  It  may  be  that  the  number  is  some- 
times exaggerated.  In  the  common  estimate  of  3,000,000 
of  unemployed  persons  their  are  probably  included 
several  thousands  who  do  not  fairly  fall  under  that 
classification.  Still,  the  fact  is  there  that  at  any  rate  an 
immense  mass  of  people  have  nothing  to  do  ;  and  taken 
in  the  aggregate  they  form  a  prodigious  power  for  evil. 
With  their  passions  inflamed  ;  with  the  pangs  of  hunger 
driving  them  to  madness  ;  and  with  a  black,  enthralling 
despair,  like  a  fiend,  clasping  them  in  its  arms,  they  are 
becoming  very  threatening  elements  of  society.  Many 
of  them  have  been  industrious,  respectable,  virtuous, 
and  they  once  little  thought  of  ever  being  reduced  to 
public  charity. 

But  circumstances  have  a  wonderful  influence  in 
vitiating  principle,  and  in  deteriorating  character  ;  and 
let  moralists  and  theologians  theorize  and  dogmatise  as 
much  as  they  please  about  the  obligation  of  virtue,  and 
the  duty  of  snbmission,  and  the  reward  of  piety — and 
Heaven  knows  we  have  quite  enough  of  sentimental 
nonsense  and  repulsive  dogmatism  in  our  pulpits  and 
periodicals,  whilst  the  real,  hard,  heart-rending  facts  of 
life  are  unnoticed  or  ignored. — there  is,  after  all,  a 
sting  in  poverty  which  will  pierce  the  bravest  soul,  and 
there  is  a  point  of  dependence  and  humiliation  which 
will  break  down  the  severest  restraints  of  law  and  rea- 
son. It  is  cruel  mockery  to  preach  contentment  to  a 
man  when  his  family  is  starving,  and  when,  though 
willing  to  perform  any  labor  by  which  he  can  honestly 
earn  a  dollar,  he  is  repulsed  at  every  door.  When  will 
our  preachers  learn  that  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  a  gospel 


THE  LABOR   PROBLEM.  6l 

of  humanity, — of  food  and  clothes,  more  than  of  hard 
inexorable  conditions,  whether  of  predestination  or  of 
repentance  and  faith  ?  There  is  a  present  necessity 
which  must  be  grappled  with  ;  future  contingencies  are 
uncertain.  Whether  right  or  wrong,  people  will  allow 
the  wants  of  the  body  to  predominate  over  the  claims  of 
the  soul  ;  and  such  is  the  constitution  of  nature,  and 
such  are  the  habits  of  life,  that  by  ministering  to  physi- 
cal comfort  the  surest  door  is  open  for  effecting  spiritual 
good.  .A^avage  is  not  insensible  to  a  deed  of  kindness  ; 
the  rockiest  nature  will  melt  beneath  the  plastic  touch  of 
sympathy  ;  and  to-day,  unpromising  as  things  some- 
times look,  let  our  politicians  cease  their  intrigues,  and 
our  preachers  their  abstractions,  and  let  them  go  as  Jesus- 
that  perfect  model  of  humanity — did,  into  the  homes  and 
hearts  of  these  thousands  of  unemployed,  half-starved, 
half-ferocious  men  and  women,  and  find  them  labor  for 
their  hands,  and  food  for  their  bellies,  and  clothes  for 
their  backs,  and  make  them  feel  that  they  are  not  de- 
serted, though  destitute,  that  there  are  human  hearts 
which  still  beat  responsively  to  theirs  in  all  their  inner 
woes  ;  and  the  strong  hand  of  prejudice,  and  resentment, 
and  hostility  will  relax  it  grip,  and  floods  of  grateful 
tears  will  prove  that  deep  down  within  the  soul, — over- 
grown it  may  be  by  weeds  and  briers  through  long  years 
of  neglect, — there  is  a  spring  of  the  tenderest  sensibility  ; 
and  touching  that  as  only  a  kindly  word,  or  a  gentle 
feeling,  or  a  generous  deed  can  do  effectually,  the 
foundation  will  be  laid  for  a  state  of  public  order  and 
peace  which  a  million  bristling  bayonets  will  never 
bring  about. 


62  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

CAN    THE  GOVERNMENT  FIND    EMPLOY- 
MENT. 

Can  the  Government  devise  any  expedient  for  the 
employment  of  these  people  ?  It  will  not  do  to  plead 
the  want  of  power.  The  power  exists  ;  and  the  re- 
sponsibility, too-  No  amount  of  sophistry  and  evasion 
will  suffice  to  relieve  the  Government  of  its  obligation 
to  preserve  the  public  peace,  and,  as  necess^y  to  that, 
to  provide  for  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  people.  It 
may  prove  a  complicated  question  ;  but  it  is  not  incap- 
able of  solution.  The  danger  has  to  be  avoided,  on  the 
one  hand,  of  encouraging  pauperism  and  crime ;  on  the 
other,  of  increasing  public  taxation  and  debt.  And  by 
the  complex  nature  of  our  Government  the  question 
is  reduced  really  into  very  simple  proportions.  It  is 
whether  by  the  Federal,  State,  and  Municipal  authori- 
ties combined,  a  system  of  public  works  may  not  be 
designed  by  which  starvation  may  be  kept  away  from 
thousands,  and  public  tranquility  be  ensured  ?  In  its 
own  province  each  authority  is  supreme  ;  yet  all  may 
act  in  concert  for  a  special  end.  And  is  their  a  nobler 
object  in  which  they  can  thus  unite  than  in  that  which 
requires  the  highest  legislative  wisdom,  and  the  most 
generous  impulses  of  the  human  heart? 

In  every  State,  if  not  in  every  city  and  town,  im- 
provements may  be  made,  or  works  may  be  begun,  which 
will  contribute  to  its  material  adornment,  or  to  its  sani- 
tary order,  or  to  its  social  progress,  and  upon  which,  in 
so  far  as  these  objects  are  concerned,  public  money  will 
be  wisely  expended.  Could  there  be  a  more  opportune 
period  than  the  present  for  the  performance  of  such 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  63 

works  ?  The  reduced  price  at  which  building  materials 
generally  are  sold,  and  the  all  but  unlimited  supply  of 
labor-power,  render  possible  the  completion  of  such  un- 
dertakings upon  more  reasonable  terms  than  at  any 
former  period.  In  due  time  they  will  more  than  repay 
the  money  expended  upon  them,  in  the  advancement  of 
the  public  good,  whilst  in  the  immediate  present  they 
will  help  to  avert  a  public  danger,  and  to  supply  an 
urgent  want.  Could  not  the  expenses  thus  incurred  be 
provided  for  between  the  Federal,  State,  and  Municipal 
Governments,  upon  a  fairly  graduated  scale,  or  by  an 
equitable  principle  of  proportion?  and  is  it  not  possible, 
even  in  these  days  of  jobbery  and  fraud,  so  to  arrange 
that  the  work  shall  be  efficiently  done,  and  the  money 
honestly  expended,  according  to  the  rules  laid  down, 
without  reference  to  political  proclivities,  and  without 
the  enrichment  of  dishonest  speculators? 

NEW   FIELDS   OF   LABOR   OPENING   UP. 

But  this  at  best  could  be  only  a  temporary  and  limit- 
ed expedient.  It  would  not  be  wise  to  conceive  of 
such  a  plan  as  a  permanent  and  effectual  remedy  for  all 
the  misfortunes  which  prevail.  Some  other  arrange- 
ment is  obviously  required  Avhich  shall  have  the  double 
advantage  af  dispersing  the  unemployed  population, 
and  of  developing  the  resources  of  the  country. 

There  is  too  great  a  tendency  to  crowd  together  in 
certain  centres,  and  from  that  part  of  the  present  mis- 
chief springs.  It  is  at  best  an  unwise  practice ;  and 
probably  the  most  effectual  counter-action  that  could  be 
furnished  to  the  practice  is  for  the  Government  to  pro- 
vide facilities,  and  to  present  inducements  for  the  peo- 


64  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

pie  to  migrate  to  the  West  and  the  South,  where  the 
population  is  limited,  where  the  climate  is  salubrious 
and  healthy,  and  where  the  land  will  yield  untold 
treasures  as  the  reward  of  patient  and  persevering  toil. 
What  has  been  realized  within  the  last  few  years  in 
certain  districts  of  the  country  both  in  agricultural  pro- 
duce and  in  mineral  wealth  is  a  fair  index  of  the  stores 
of  unfathomed  riches  which  are  waiting  to  be  explored, 
and  of  the  brilliant  fortunes  which  may  yet  be  made. 

It  is  possible  that  the  extent  of  unoccupied  prairie 
land  in  the  West  yet  available  or  suitable  for  cultivation 
is  not  so  great  as  we  have  generally  supposed.  In  a 
recent  article  Mr.  David  Wells,  an  eminent  authority  on 
economic  subjects,  has  boldly  affirmed  that  the  quantity 
of  fertile  public  land  suitable  for  farming  purposes 
which  can  now  be  obtained  by  preemption,  or  at  nomi- 
nal prices,  is  comparatively  limited,  if  not  nearly  ex- 
hausted. This  opinion  is  apparently  confirmed  by  the 
researches  of  Major  Powell,  who  has  charge  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  the  Territories,  and  who,  when 
reporting  on  the  subject,  says  that  there  is  not  left  un- 
sold within  the  whole  of  the  United  States,  except  it  be 
in  Texas  or  the  Indian  Territory,  land  which  a  poor  man 
could  turn  into  a  productive  farm,  of  sufficient  extent  to 
make  one  average  county  in  Wisconsin.  There  is  some- 
thing, at  first  sight,  startling  in  these  statements  ;  and 
possibly  the  evidence  which  Major  Powell  is  about  to 
furnish  in  the  Report  he  is  preparing  for  Congress  may 
open  up  an  entirely  new  phase  of  thought,  and  lead  to 
a  new  line  of  action.  Under  any  circumstances  it  is 
better  that  the  actual  facts  should  be  known.  We  can 
legislate  wisely  if  we  know  the  ground  on  which  we 
stand,  and  the  direction  in  which  our  plans  must  turn. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  65 

But  when  all  has  been  conceded  that  Mr.  Wells  and 
Major  Powell  require,  it  is  still  unquestionably  true 
that  there  is  a  large  portion  of  land  unoccupied  in .  the 
West,  upon  which  fertile  farms  may  be  formed  with 
comparatively  small  expense  and  labor.  There  are  offi- 
cial reports  to  prove  this  ;  and  suplemental  to  these  are 
numerous  communications  which  hold  out  an  encouraging 
prospect  to  those  who  with  willirfg  hands  and  earnest 
hearts  may -turn  their  faces  west-ward.  But  leaving  the 
Western  territory  out  of  consideration,  are  there  not 
numerous  places  in  the  South, — both  east-ward  and  west- 
ward— which  are  at  this  moment  awaiting  cultivation 
and  which  present  almost  unexampled  facilities  for  both 
manufacturing  and  agricultural  operations  ?  In  Texas 
alone,  not  to  mention  any  other  State,  since  a  reference 
as  made  to  that  by  Major  Powell,  the  climate  and  soil 
are  simply  superb,  whilst  the  territory,  as  a  recent  writ- 
er has  said,  is  greater  in  area  than  Kentucky,  Virginia, 
Maryland,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and 
all  New  England  united.  There  are  other  places,  too, 
rich  beyond  expression  in  the  primary  elements  of 
wealth  and  power.  Yet  the  immense  advantages  provi- 
ded by  nature  in  these  Southern  States  are  practically 
unenjoyed,  simply  because  there  are  wanted  the  popu- 
lation, the  enterprise,  the  skill,  which  are  necessary  to 
their  full  development.  Were  a  few  thousand  dollars 
judiciously  expended  in  some  of  these  places,  with 
steady,  well  directed  labor,  a  wondrous,  transformation 
would  quickly  follow.  Many  who  are  now  in  penury 
would  luxuriate  in  comfort ;  and  the  glowing  picture  of 
the  old  Hebrew  prophet  might  be  realized,  when  the 
wilderness  shall  become  a  fruitful  field,  and  the  desert 
shall  blossom  as  the  rose  :  when  instead  of  the  thorn 


66  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

shall  spring  up  the  myrtle  tree,  and  instead  of  the  brier 
the  fir  tree  ;  and  when  from  the  very  rocks  shall  flow 
springs  of  living  water. 

CAN   THE    GOVERNMENT  PROVIDE 
FACILITIES  ? 

Now  is  it  not  the  province  of  the  Government  to  fa- 
cilitate the  occupancy  and  cultivation  of  these  lands  ? 
Has  it  not  power  to  render  them  acceptable  to  the  public 
upon  feasible  terms,  and  to  furnish  in  part  the  means 
which  are  necessary  for  removal  thither,  and  for  pros- 
perous labor  ?  In  doing  this  would  it  not  contribute  a 
powerful  influence  towards  the  equalization  of  our  pop- 
ulation, and  towards  the  development  of  our  natural 
resources,  besides  relieving  our  present  apparently 
growing  destitution?  And  is  not  this  an  object  vast 
enough,  philanthropic  enough,  renumerative  enough,  to 
fill  a  patriot's  soul,  to  nerve  a  statesman's  courage  ? 

PUBLIC   CO-OPERATION  ASSURED. 

Such  a  proposition  assumes,  as  a  matter  of  course,  the 
co-operation  of  the  laboring  classes  themselves.  With- 
out that  the  best  efforts  of  the  Government  must  prove 
inoperative.  No  class  of  the  community  can  be  com- 
pelled to  migrate  to  any  particular  spot.  All  idea  of 
expatriation  is  groundless.  There  is  no  thought  of  a 
Siberian  settlement.  Those  who  go  should  go  of  their 
own  volition,  in  unrestricted  liberty,  and  with  a  resolute 
arm  and  will. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  67 

It  is  likely  that  tramps   and   vagrants  will   object. 
They  are  really  not  the   persons  for  whom   we  write. 
The  law  must  deal  with  them  in  another  form      And 
possibly,  too,  some,  even  of  the  industriously  inclined, 
with  large  families  and  no  means,  will  hesitate  to  accept 
the  proposal.     The  writer  has-  met  with  such.      Their 
difficulty,  however,  has  mostly  originated  in  a  want  of 
funds,  and  these  supplied,  a  cheerful  acquiescence  has 
followed.      And  at   this   moment  the  writer  knows  of 
both  individuals  and  families  who  are  willing  to  avail 
themselves  of  such  openings,  and  such  help,  and  whose 
future  will  richly  repay  the  efforts  made  on  their  behalf. 
There  are  strong  reasons  which  bind  many  of  them  to 
their  present  habitation  ;  and  genuine  sentiment  even 
in  the  poorest  man  must   be   respected  as  an    instinct 
which  bespeaks  a  spiritual  relationship,  and  which  shows 
that  even  poverty  may  be  ennobled  and  enriched.     But 
in  such  a  crisis  as  this  men  cannot  afford  to  indulge  too 
strongly  in  sentimental  feeling.      They  are  confronted 
with  a  stern  necessity  ;  they  have  to  deal  with  a  terrible 
want.     Nothing  short  of  starvation  stares  them  in  the 
face.     If  they  remain  in  their  present  position  it  is  with- 
out any  visible  prospect  of  improvement  ;  and  life  will 
become  to  them  a  miserable  drag,  and  the  world   itself 
will  prove  little  better  than  "a  gulf  of   dark  despair.'* 
If  they  remove  to  new  fields,  and  enter  upon  a  new  life, 
they   will,   at   least,  have  the  promise  of  better  times. 
Hope,  like  a  star,  will    shoot  its  radiance  across  their 
path  ;  and  after  the  privations  of  the  desert,  they  may, 
like  the  Israelites  of  old,  enter  into  the  possession  of  a 
goodly  land,  which  flows  with  milk  and  honey. 


68  THE  LRBOR  PROBLEM. 

In  general  the  laboring  classes  are  signalized  by 
common  sense.  Here  there  is  need  for  its  highest  ex- 
ercise. The  subject  appeals  to  their  tenderest  sensibili- 
ties, touches  their  deepest  wants;  and  if  in  the  consider- 
ation of  it  reason  be  allowed  its  proper  place, — if  it  be 
viewed  calmly,  in  the  light  of  self-interest  only,  can 
there  remain  a  doubt  on  which  sile  the  scale  will  turn, 
and  what  course  will  ultimately  be  adjudged  the  best? 
By  general,  if  not  unanimous  consent,  the  unemployed 
portions  of  the  community  will  determine  that  an  exodus 
shall  take  place  at  once  from  these  crowded  centres  to 
the  attractive  fields  which  are  opening  their  arms  to  re- 
ceive, and  unfolding  their  beauties  to  allure  them. 

GOVERNMENT   AND    PRIVATE   HELP. 

In  the  inauguration,  or  in  the  support  of  such  a 
movement,  the  Government  may  cover  itself  with  glory, 
and  confer  unspeakable  advantage  upon  the  country. 
But  how  can  the  Government  help  ?  is  the  question 
asked.  With  the  most  perfect  consistency  and  ease,  in 
rendering  unoccupied  lands  more  accessible  and  secure 
upon  the  simplest  terms,  in  providing  facilities  for  the 
transmigration  of  families,  in  furnishing  funds  upon 
advantageous  terms  to  meet  necessary  expenses,  in  sup- 
plying implements  and  tools  to  perform  the  required 
labor,  and  in  guaranteeing  to  the  settlers  all  needful 
protection  and  help  against  harpers  and  swindlers, 
and  under  difficulty  and  danger.  Is  not  the  plan  feas- 
ible? In  the  gravity  of  the  crisis  is  it  not  worthy  of 
dispassionate  thought  from  the  President  and  his  Cabi- 
net, from  Senators  and  Representatives,  from  employers 
and  employed  ? 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  69 

Another  element,  however,  is  needed.  It  is  not  a 
movement  that  concerns  the  Government  alone.  In 
this  there  is  ample  room,  in  this  there  is  urgent  need,  for 
the  exercise  of  private  benevolence.  Next  to  the 
possession  of  the  land,  money  will  be  required  to  set 
the  thing  in  motion.  It  would  be  preposterous  to  pro- 
pose to  the  unemployed  the  advisability  of  emigrating 
to  these  new  fields,  unless  they  are  furnished  with 
means  and  tools,  and  suitably  directed  when  they 
reach  their  destination.  They  have  not  a  cent  in 
their  pockets  ;  they  have  no  articles  which  may  be  con- 
verted into  money;  they  would  find  it  difficult  to  obtain 
the  loan  of  a  dollar,  or  credit  for  a  plough ;  and  they 
want  implements  as  well  as  funds.  Without  a  supply  of 
these  things  the  hope  of  emigration  is  visionary  ;  with 
these  it  might  soon  become  a  practical  reality. 

This  assertion  is  made  upon  the  best  authority.  The 
writer  has  tested  the  sentiments  and  feelings  of  hun- 
dreds of  workingmen  ;  and  from  intercourse  with  them 
he  is  warranted  to  affirm  that  multitudes  would  gladly 
avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  of  entering  upon 
this  new  life,  if  furnished  with  the  means  to  do  so.  At 
this  moment  he  has  a  list  of  persons  who  have  expressed 
their  willingness  to  go  West  or  South,  and  to  aid  whom 
he  is  privately  obtaining  funds. 

In  providing  such  funds  the  people  may  gladly  come 
to  the  aid  of  the  Government.  It  is  impracticable  that 
the  Government  can  do  all.  By  Government  interposi- 
tion the  work  may  be  begun  ;  by  private  generosity  the 
work  must  be  carried  on.  There  are  thousands  of  indi- 
viduals and  families  who  even  in  these  " hard  times" 
have  supurfluous  means,  or  who  could  without  incon- 
venience lend  a  helping  hand  in  promoting  this  emigra- 


•JO  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

tion.  They  could  give  a  contribution  of  money  or  fur- 
nish some  needful  tools  ;  and  they  could  make  some 
more  direct  effort  to  further  practical  arrangements. 
And  why  if  a  sacrifice  of  luxury  or  comfort  be  needed, 
should  it  not  be  made  ?  Why  not  do  with  less  dress  ;  or 
with  less  amusement ;  or  with  less  gluttony,  that  the 
outcast  and  perishing  may  be  sheltered,  and  clothed,  and 
fed,  and  that  the  general  order  of  society  may  be  pre- 
served ? 

In  this  there  is  a  direct  appeal,  not  simply  to  the  Gov- 
ernment, not  simply  to  the  representatives  of  our  pub- 
lic institutions,  but  also  to  employers  of  labor,  and  to 
private  individuals  and  families  of  wealth  and  position 
There  never  was  a  period  when  their  influence  could  be 
so  beneficially  exerted  for  their  country.  It  is  a  day  of 
peril  ;  it  is  an  hour  of  need  ;  and  wise  counsels,  accom- 
panied by  generous  help  would  tell  immensely  upon 
the  present  character  and  future  destiny  of  our  peo- 
ple. 

Would  it  not  be  well  for  a  few  earnest,  generous- 
hearted  men  and  women  to  take  the  matter  in  hand, 
form  themselves  into  a  committee,  collect  information, 
propose  plans,  obtain  funds,  and  commence  work  ?  This 
would  prove  of  infinitely  more  value  than  any  amount  of 
empty  theorising  or  sentimental  sorrow  ;  and  in  thus 
acting  a  crowd  of  fashionable  people  may  encircle  their 
own  paths  with  glory,  while  they  open  up  springs  of  joy 
in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  their  helpless  fellows. 
Who  will  lead  the  van,  or  strike  the  first  blow  ?  The 
answer  must  be  prompt,  bold,  decisive;  and,  alike  be- 
cause of  their  opportunities  and  their  influence,  the 
Mothers  and  Daughters  of  America  are  urged  to  come 
forward  and  aid  in  the  inauguration  of  this  much  need- 
ed and  useful  work. 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  71 

INFORMATION  NEEDED. 

But  whether  this,  or  any  other  plan  so  far  suggested, 
be  deemed  advisable,  one  other  course  is  open  to  the 
Government  and  Congress;  and  that  should  be  adopted 
with  perfect  unanimity,  and  without  delay.  Is  it  not 
felt  and  admitted  that  on  many  phases  of  this  great 
question  minute  and  accurate  information  is  needed? 
Were  it  deemed  expedient  to  attempt  any  legislation  for 
the  removal  of  our  labor  difficulties,  are  the  real  facts 
involved  sufficiently  patent  to  the  public  or  sufficiently 
understood  by  the  members  of  both  Houses  of  Congress 
to  enable  them  to  form  an  impartial  judgment,  and  to 
enact  suitable  and  useful  laws  ?  From  statistics  which 
have  been  carefully  collected,  and  from  reports  which 
have  been  incidentally  furnished,  a  certain  amount  of 
knowledge  is  undoubtedly  in  the  possession  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  accessible  to  the  public.  But  who  will  pre- 
tend that  the  actual  condition  of  the  various  industries 
of  the  land,  that  the  real  relations 'of  employers  and 
employed,  that  the  inner  workings  of  our  railway  sys- 
tem, of  our  mines  and  of  our  public  manufacturing  bod- 
ies, and  that,  in  one  word,  the  public  wants,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  public  provision,  on  the  other,  are  close- 
ly, comprehensively,  accurately  understood?  And  is 
not  correct  information  the  first  requisite?  Is  it  not 
possible  to  obtain  the  information  thus  desired  ?  and  is 
it  not  imperative  upon  the  Government  to  adopt  means 
for  meeting  the  necessity  ? 

A  COMMISSION   PROPOSED. 

As  it  appears  to  the  writer  this  is  not  a  formidable 
task.     It  requires  no  ponderous  machinery,  or  elaborate 


72  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

organization.  .  In  the  hands  of  one  intelligent,  active, 
energetic,  patriotic  soul,  the  whole  work  could  be  ac- 
complished at  small  expense,  and  in  a  short  time.  The 
Government  or  Congress  may  have  need  to  enact  a  law, 
or  to  express  a  wish  that  the  information  desired  should 
be  given  ;  and  there  is  not  a  corporation  or  trade  in  the 
country  that  would  withhold  it,  if  asked  for  it  in  the 
right  way.  It  would  then  be  for  the  agent  of  the  Gov- 
ernment to  place  himself  in  communication  with  the  au- 
thorities and  persons  interested,  to  propose  questions, 
to  obtain  returns,  to  receive  suggestions  ;  and  having 
succeeded  in  this  to  collate  the  documents  possessed,  to 
classify  the  facts  elicited,  to  arrange  the  suggestions  offer- 
ed, and  to  prepare  a  well  digested  report  based  npon 
the  whole,  with  a  statement  of  such  conditions  as  the 
premises  would  warrant. 

In  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time  the  Government 
and  Congress  might  be  placed  in  possesion  of  the  latest, 
fullest,  and  most  accurate  information  yet  presented  of 
the  extent  of  our  industrial  population,  of  the  relative 
number  of  employed  and  unemployed  persons  through- 
out the  Union,  of  the  capabilities  and  resources  of  our 
different  trades,  of  the  actual  production  which  takes 
place  in  different  manufacturing  branches,  of  the  amount 
of  wages  regularly  paid  to  employees,  of  the  losses  and 
risks  incurred  by  railway  and  other  companies,  of  the 
organization  and  action  of  trade  unions,  of  the  savings, 
or  sufferings  of  the  working  classes,  and  of  a  hundred 
other  subjects  which  are  essentially  included,  or  which 
might  incidentally  arise. 

In  such  a  report  the  facility  for  opening  up  new  land 
for  cultivation  would  be  considered  ;  and  in  the  light  of 
ascertained  facts, — under  the  power  of  tangible  evi- 


THE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  73 

dence,  new  views  might  be  formed,  and  new  methods  be 
adopted,  in  reference  to  pauperism,  vagrancy,  and  crime, 
which  might  both  contribute  to  the  reduction  of  public 
expense,  and  to  the  improvement  of  public  morals.  In 
a  hundred  ways,  indeed,  such  a  report  might  be  made 
useful  to  the  Government,  to  Congress,  and  to  the  whole 
country  ;  and  for  the  labor  it  might  involve,  and  the 
few  hundred  dollars  it  might  cost,  there  should  not 
be  a  moment's  hesitancy  in  arranging  for  the  perfor- 
mance of  the  work. 

But  should  Government  shrink  from  assuring  this 
responsibility,  why  may  it  not  be  undertaken  at  the  ex- 
pense, and  under  the  direction  of  some  responsible  body 
of  private  citizens,  or  representatives  of  charitable  in- 
stitutions ?  In  the  splended  achievements  which  have 
been  made  in  geographical  science  by  Mr.  H.  M.  Stanley 
in  Central  Africa  an  illustration  is  furnished  of  what 
transcondent  results  may  be  attained  through  private 
enterprise,  in  a  distant  land,  and  amidst  almost  unpar- 
alleled difficulty  and  danger.  Here  is  a  subject  which 
presents  fewer  difficulties,  but  which  has  more  impor- 
tant bearings,  the  practical  solution  of  which  is  of  vastly 
more  consequence  to  the  health,  and  virtue,  and  prosper- 
ity, and  happiness  of  the  whole  of  this  great  country  than 
the  discovery  of  the  source  or  the  Congo,  or  the  course 
of  the  Lualaba,  and  which  yet  might  be  brought  to  a 
practical  and  satisfactory  issue  by  an  expenditure  of 
much  less  time,  and  labor,  and  money.  If  the  Govern- 
ment fail,  is  there  no  one  amongst  iis  sufficiently  inter- 
ested to  take  it  up,  and  by  securing  a  report  which  shall 
remove  ignorance,  and  lay  a  sound  basis  for  operations, 
thus  contribute  towards  the  solution  of  this,  the  greatest 
problem  of  the  age  ? 


74  THE  LABOR  PROBLEM. 

CLOSING   WORDS. 

With  profound  deference  and  respect  these  views 
are  submitted  to  all  classes  of  the  community.  In 
thus  introducing  the  subject  the  writer  is  influenced 
by  an  earnest  desire  for  the  preservation  of  public 
peace,  and  the  promotion  of  the  nation's  good,  upon 
a  sound  basis,  and  by  the  application  of  just  laws.  He 
is  not  vain  enough  to  imagine  that  all  the  sentiments 
he  has  enunciated,  or  that  all  the  arguments  he  has  used, 
will  pass  unchallenged,  or  meet  with  unqualified  appro- 
val. But  of  this  he  is  conscious,  that  whatever  excep- 
tion might  be  taken  to  his  views,  or  to  his  manner  of 
stating  them,  he  has  approached  the  consideration  of  the 
subject  with  a  mind  free  from  party  bias  ;  and  has  en- 
deavoured to  express  the  conclusions  arrived  at  with  a 
mingled  feelingof  courtesy  and  candor.  There  is  no  de- 
sire to  dogmatize  ;  the  writer  will  regret  to  be  misunder- 
stood ;  and,  still  more,  to  excite  an  angry  or  party  strife. 

It  is,  however,  impossible  that  the  subject  in  any  of 
its  multifarious  forms  can  be  ignored.  Both  statesmen 
and  philosophers  must  bend  their  minds  to  its  discussion. 
In  the  pulpit  and  the  pew  ;  in  social  intercourse  and  at 
public  meetings,  its  principles  must  be  analysed,  and  its 
lessons  enforced.  And  if  in  the  investigations  which 
may  ensue,  there  be  a  clashing  of  minds,  or  an  abrasion 
of  ideas,  it  is  far  more  likely  that  truth  will  be  elimina- 
ted in  crystal  forms,  whilst  nothing  need  be  said  to  ruf- 
fle any  temper,  or  to  wound  the  weakest  soul.  As 
Plato  said,  long,  long  ago,  *'  The  evils  of  the  world 
will  continue  until  kings  become  philosophers,  or 
philosophers  king.  In  the  higher  forms  of  prac- 
tical wisdom  required  by  the  great  philosopher  for 
administering  the  affairs  of  the  Commonwealth,  we 


TttE  LABOR  PROBLEM.  75 

have  all  something  to  learn  and  unlearn  ;  and,  perhaps, 
in  nothing  is  this  more  manifest  than  in  relation  to  the 
Labor  Problem  which  is  now  forced  upon  the  public 
mind.  The  right  solution  of  that  problem  will  influ- 
ence in  an  incalculable  degree  the  history  of  America, 
and  the  destiny  of  our  race. 

It  may  be  given  to  this  country,  by  an  inscrutably 
wise  Providence,  to  solve  the  social,  as  it  has  already 
worked  out  the  political  problem  which  had  perplexed 
the  ages  of  the  past.  In  the  fulfilment  of  that  exalted 
mission  the  present  Government  and  Congress  are  call- 
ed upon  to  take  a  leading  part ;  and  relying  upon  the 
hearty  sympathy  and  zealous  co-operation  of  the  people, 
both  should  now  fully  apply  themselves  to  the  appoint- 
ed task,  resolved  that  in  their  hands  the  prestige  of  the 
country  shall  be  preserved,  whilst  its  comfort  is  enhanc- 
ed. Whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  the  writer  is  convinced 
that  a  solution  of  this  grand  problem  is  practicable  ;  and 
whether  in  any  form  he  has  contributed  to  that  result 
the  issue  of  this  appeal  can  alone  determine.  The  ne- 
cessity for  practical  wisdom  and  disinterested  sympathy 
was  never  stronger  nor  could  philosophers,  philan- 
thropists, and  statesmen  have  a  better  opportunity  for 
acquiring  renown  and  doing  good. 


PREPARING  FOR  PUBLICATION. 

SHOWERS  OF  BLESSINGS 

OR 

GREAT  REVIVALS    IN    THE  CHURCH 
ANALYZED  AND  REVIEWED. 


A  WORK  IN  FOUR  PARTS. 


PART  I.— PENTECOST  ;  or,   the    Baptism  of 

Fire. 
PART  II.— THE  REFORMATION  ;  or,  Life 

from  the  Dead. 
PART  III.— THE  AWAKENING  ;  or,  Gospel 

Triumphs    in    the    labor    of    Wesley    and 

Whitfield. 
PART  IV.— TIMES  OF  REFRESHING;  or, 

Pentecostal    Baptisms    in   recent    Revivals, 

with   special    reference  to   the   services   of 

Moody  and  Sankey. 


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